Legend - School DAZE
by Revu
Summary: Depressed after Goku's death, it's decided the best thing for Gohan is to send him to middle school and make friends with peers his own age. Together with his new friends Gohan will have to face the greatest threats earth has seen yet.
1. A Social Experiment

Dragon Ball Legend

1st Saga: School Daze

Disclaimer:

-The author does not own any part of the Dragon Ball series, including but not limited to the characters of the story.

-This story is entirely fictional, based from purely fictional premise, none of the characters, actions characters partake in, many contraptions found here-in did not happen/do not actually exist.

-No money was made from the creation or distribution of this fic.

-No animals or people were hurt in the making of this fic.

-The author does not encourage nor endorse others to partake in actions as described within the story.

Warnings:

This story is rated T for the following reasons:

-Depictions of violence and mild gore.

-Mild language.

-Several deaths (Which by the way happens a lot in Dragon Ball… If you are offended by reading about dead people walking around in heaven, hell, or "Other World" then you should probably stop reading this and go read the Slayer's Spell Bible immediately!)

-Potentially inappropriate relationships.

If any of these themes offend you, please do not continue to read this story.

Misc:

A little less than two years after Cell is defeated, Gohan is sent to middle school. During this troubling time in any young person's life, Gohan will have to come to terms with who he is, how he feels about his father, who he wants in his life, and who he wants to be. Gohan's new friends will play a major role in helping to shape our hero from this day forward. And perhaps they'll even be able to lend Gohan a hand as he faces the greatest threats to earth yet.

I'd like to apologize to everyone waiting on my other stories. It's been a rough few months dealing with break ups and depression. As much as I wanted to I just couldn't get in the mood to write anything decent.

Well NaNoWriMo came along, and the rules of NaNoWriMo, for anyone not familiar with it, is you must write a story of 50,000 words or more within the month of November. It has to be a new story, not a continuation of something from the past. I debated it for a while and decided I'm going to do it. So this is my entry for NaNoWriMo.

At the time of this posting I'm a little over 25,000 words into the story. I'm going to post it chapter by chapter still but there is at least that much and I definitely hope my exercise proves to help get my confidence and creativity back up there.

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><p>Chapter 1: A Social Experiment<p>

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><p>Two years after the Cell Games…<p>

Chichi watched with a forced smile on her face as her twelve year old son spoon fed his little brother. "Come on Goten! Who's gonna grow up and be a big stwong super saiyan? Is it you? Yeah it's you huh?! Better keep eating then!" Goten giggled as his brother teased him and gave him more toddler mush.

There were times like now when Gohan acted normal and happy, but Chichi was starting to see the truth… her son was depressed and lonely. In part she blamed herself for being such a strict parent and forcing Gohan to spend so much time concentrating on his studies…

"Why do you hate it that I just want to spend time with my friends? Is that really so wrong?!" Chichi remembered Gohan snapping at her the last time she told him he couldn't go spend time at Master Roshi's house. He immediately realized what he had done and his expression softened, "I… I'm sorry mom… I didn't mean… I'll get back to studying…"

Did she not want him to spend time with friends? This was true in part… No matter how she tried to look at it, she just wasn't comfortable with Gohan spending so much time friends considerably older than he was. All of Gohan's friends were, after all, his father's friends. He was just born at the wrong time to have anyone in his own age inside the family's circle of trust.

A thought had been bouncing around her mind for a little while now… it seemed like the perfect solution to her… Every kid needs to socialize and the rest of the world socialized by going to school. She just had two hurdles to overcome to put her thought into action. First was convincing Gohan to go, and second was convincing herself that allowing Gohan to slouch to the level of normal was what was best for him right now…

Chichi had gone through the trouble of researching the curriculum Gohan would be learning in a school with his own age group… and quite frankly… she had him doing most of that kind of work when he was Goten's age… They were still studying Algebra for crying out loud! She had Gohan learning Calculus when he was seven… She sat down and sighed as it just became all the clearer how much rougher Gohan has had it than a normal kid.

"Goten's all done mom, I'll be going up to finish my homework now…" Gohan informed his mom as he tidied up the kitchen.

She was going to do it… no second guessing… "Gohan sweetie, come here for a minute."

Gohan looked confused but did as he was told and took a seat in the living room by his mom, "What is it?" he asked mildly concerned.

Chichi looked very serious, "We need to talk about something, this is important for you alright?"

Gohan nodded still unsure of where the conversation was headed.

Deciding not to beat around the bush, Chichi stated frankly, "Gohan honey… I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this, but I want to enroll you in a full time school."

"WHAT?!" Gohan fell back in shock, definitely not expecting this of all things.

Just the reaction she'd expected… Chichi pulled out a folder of information, "I took the liberty of contacting a few appropriate institutions and they sent me quite a bit of information, why don't you have a look?" She handed the pamphlets to her son, "These are all schools nearby for you. I remember the city close by being called Orange City, but apparently they've renamed it during the last year," She stopped talking and sat back in her seat awaiting a reaction.

Gohan was still getting over the shock of full time school when he brushed over the curriculum section of the pamphlet. His face contorted slightly as he tried to hide his surprise as to what his age group was still learning, "Wait… why… why did you chose this school?"

Chichi grinned unnoticeably to herself knowing she at least had his interest now, "Orange Star Middle Academy is a reputable school with high averages on all the recognized standardization tests."

Gohan just looked confused now, "Wh… Why do you want to send me to a Middle School? I mean… not that… you know that's entirely out of the question or anything… but… don't you get all of my text books from some post graduate academy somewhere?"

Chichi shook her head, "Those schools are just much further away from us, plus the students there are a lot older than you are."

Gohan scratched his head, "It's just… you took a look at the courses they offer at this school right? So I thought…"

Chichi smiled, "Are you saying you're too smart for Middle School?"

"NO! No… it's not like that… but…" Gohan was at a loss for words.

Chichi rubbed her son's shoulder deciding to lay down all the cards and just be blunt with him, "There's a reason I want you to go to public school Gohan."

Gohan cocked his head to the side, "There is?"

Chichi nodded, "I think you're missing out on a lot by not having friends your own age Gohan. When your father was your age so was Krillin and Yamcha wasn't that much older." Gohan's expression darkened a little at the mention of his father and Chichi mentally cursed herself for that, "I just want you to see the world from your own generation's point of view. Go see what they're like out there. Find out more about the real world and not just read about it in books and newspapers but live it with your peers. I expect you to work hard and learn about modern trends in youth today and incorporate new theories into your communication skills. We can consider this a… social experiment. What do you think?"

Gohan thought about it for a minute, "Well… I guess I could learn something from that…"

Chichi smiled, "Great! Then we'll be going into town tomorrow to take the exam and shop for school clothes for you!"

"OK…" Gohan agreed still unsure of what exactly he was getting into, but now he was at least mildly excited.

The next day, Chichi was waiting patiently outside the testing room at Orange Star Middle Academy. Chichi was all dressed up and had makeup on to look as professional as possible. She had made sure Gohan wore his business dress clothes also. From the moment they walked in the door he was getting compliments on how sharp he looked which made him quite interested with the ground all the way through the building.

Chichi couldn't help but chuckle as her son may have been the most powerful warrior in the universe, but he still lacked the skills to confidently speak to normal people. More than ever she was sure she was making the right choice.

The door to the exam room opened and the instructor led Gohan outside. Chichi smiled to herself at the bewildered gaze that crossed the instructor's face. The instructor hurriedly called out the principal before going over the results.

"How'd you do?" Chichi asked her son as he took a seat by her.

Gohan shrugged, "I'm pretty sure I did well, there was nothing on it that looked unfamiliar… but as soon as I finished he just looked at me funny and started mumbling…"

The principal finally came out of her office looking very excited with the instructor close behind, "Mr. Son, may I shake your hand?"

Gohan nodded meekly, "Okay…"

The principal gave Gohan's hand an enthusiastic squeeze, "My goodness you are a smart one aren't you?"

"Ummm…" Gohan obviously didn't know how to respond to the situation.

The principal couldn't help but chuckle, "You see no one has ever completed our entrance exam within the time limit much less aced it. Mr. Son… I must congratulate you on being the first student ever to achieve a perfect score! Remarkable! We welcome you with open arms to Orange Star Middle Academy!"

Chichi cleared her throat drawing over the principal's attention, "I'm so proud of you son, I knew you could do it! Now when will he be able to start?"

The principal looked over the paper work, "I have the staff taking care of processing his registration paper work right now. We just have to clear him with the district since your permanent residence is outside our designated school zone, but I am sure we will have no issues getting the transfer approved by the superintendent. Would Monday be alright to come back for his first day?"

Chichi smiled sweetly, "That would be perfect Principal Brennard, I'll make sure he's here and ready for class Monday morning!"

The principal still had an excited smile over her face, "Excellent! Then you rest up and enjoy your weekend Mr. Son. Come back to my office when you arrive on Monday, and I'll show you to your class!"

"Alright, thank you Ma'am." Gohan bowed courteously to the principal before turning to leave.

Chichi and Gohan started walking towards the car, "So what do you think?" Chichi finally asked.

"It's a huge building," Gohan looked around and noticed he was being watched by students hanging out by the windows from a few of the classrooms several floors up. He waved shyly and a few girls waved back, "Everyone seems friendly… I guess it'll be alright." Gohan opened the passenger side of the car and took a seat.

"Good, I hope you'll make a lot of new friends here!" Chichi smiled warmly as she started the car.

"Umm… Thanks…" Gohan thought dryly as the car lifted up and headed to the mall where they were to meet with Bulma.

Bulma was easy to spot once they arrived at the mall. She actually brought a few cart bots with her to carry anything she decided to buy while here.

"Oh boy…" Gohan thought to himself realizing this would not be a quick trip through one or two stores.

"Hi Bulma!" Chichi called giving her friend the usual hug, "How was Goten when you left?"

Bulma hugged Chichi back and smiled brightly, "Oh, he's doing great! He and Trunks were busy playing with the mega blocks, building yet another undecipherable mass of plastic. Vegeta's watching them now making sure neither of them tries to swallow any of legos." Chichi laughed, long since realizing she had nothing to worry about with her son while Vegeta was watching.

The tug of war began as the two ladies dragged Gohan to stores all across the mall. Gohan sighed as his mom kept pulling polo shirts and plaid pants off of the racks for him to try on. Bulma at least was more aware of his style and found more cargo pants and snuck a few pairs of jeans in for him. She was even good at finding the shirts that were simple yet stylish for him.

Gohan had been whisked through at least ten stores over the last three hours when the sound of shattering glass reached his ears. The roof of the mall was broken as several men repelled through the opening with semi automatic weapons in their grasp. The shattered skylight was directly above the financial nerve of the mall where the ATMs, cash exchange, and broker services were located.

The men pointed their guns at the employees, "HAND OVER ALL THE MONEY NOW!"

"Oh man…" Gohan stared at the events happening on the floor under them.

Gohan was getting ready to jump down to the floor below and help when his mother called him, "Gohan! Be careful no one recognizes you. It could cause a lot of trouble for you if people start associating you with crime fighting and super powers."

Gohan froze thinking about how unrelenting the media alone could be when they found someone of interest to them. Gohan turned around looking torn, "I have to do something!"

Bulma winked at Gohan with an all knowing smirk on her face, "It's a good thing you saiyans come with a built in disguise that should work for now!"

"Oh yeah!" Gohan grinned and ran off behind the service doors to the mall corridors.

Most of the mall goers were dropping to the floor and covering their heads as the robbers fired warning shots into the air and loaded their bags with money. Once they had enough they began scaling up their ropes again to make their escape on the roof.

As the men climbed, everyone in the mall was prone on the ground trying to shield themselves except for two women on the second floor who watched them with arms crossed. Before the men could think much about it a gust of wind began humming from behind the service doors on the second floor. A young super saiyan burst from behind them and flew like lightning and cut the ropes letting the vandals fall.

The three men screamed as they fell to the ground level. They each hit with a hard thud and hurriedly climbed to their feet. Gohan landed in the middle between the three of them, "Give it up, now!"

The three of them turned to Gohan and all fired their weapons at the same time. None of the bullets penetrated Gohan's powerful aura. In a burst of speed Gohan grabbed all the guns and twisted them together into an unrecognizable heap of metal.

Now disarmed, the three bandits attempted to make a break for it. Gohan grabbed one easily by the leg as he tried running past and hurled him into the other two. Once they were down on the ground Gohan whirled around the crooks and tied them up with their own escape rope leaving a package ready for police to come pick up.

The bystanders began to stand back up again now that the threat was over. Some of them pulled out their camera phones as they approached to get a better look at the boy who saved the day. The glow around Gohan's body intensified causing them to look away and he floated out through the ceiling and vanished.

Gohan quickly snuck back in the mall through a service entrance and made his way back over to the scene of the incident. He smiled as he noticed people making sure the crooks didn't try and escape and sirens were heard through the hole in the ceiling signifying the police were close.

A loud slap noise from behind startled Gohan and made him jump slightly. A girl with black hair and blue eyes stood overlooking the scene with her fists clenched, "I can't believe I missed the action! This would have been a great opportunity to test my new techniques too!" She crossed her arms and continued to stare over the crowd.

Noticing Gohan staring at her she spoke to him, "Did you see what happened here?"

Realizing he had been staring now Gohan shook his head, "Me? No… It all happened too fast for me to see anything…"

The girl looked over the dressy clothes Gohan was wearing and it finally clicked in her head, "Hey I saw you leaving my school today didn't I? Did you just enroll in Orange Star Middle?"

Gohan nodded, "Yes, I start class on Monday."

"I see… Well what's your name then?" The girl asked.

Gohan extended his hand out courteously, "Son Gohan, nice to meet you."

The girl took the offered hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you too Gohan."

Gohan didn't release her hand and caused the girl to look at him confused as if he were waiting for something, "Sorry, I didn't get your name."

The girl's eyes widened, "What?! You mean… you don't know who I am?"

Gohan let go of her hand and stared confused, "Umm… no…"

The girl shook her head, "I'm sorry, with the look you had on your face earlier I had thought you had recognized me, I'm Videl Satan, the daughter of Hercule Satan, the man who defeated Cell."

Gohan's mouth fell open and his eye twitched, "You mean you're… _his_ daughter?"

"I know I know, it's a big role to live up to, but I'm training hard to surpass my father! I'm pretty busy with that so I need to get going. Maybe I'll see you at school sometime! Bye!" Videl called as she ran off.

"Bye…" Gohan waved back weakly.

After a moment of still standing there having watched her leave a shrill voice spoke into Gohan's ear from behind, "Sooo… first day in town and you've already met a girl, aren't you the little Casanova?"

"Bulma!" Gohan whined.

"OK, I'm sorry… but from the looks of things you're going to need a set of clothes that we aren't going to be able to find here," Bulma grinned as the cogs of genius began to turn.

Gohan still looked confused, "What are you talking about Bulma?"

"I'm talking about crime fighting silly! It's in your blood, you can't just sit back and watch bad things happen; you have to jump in and do something about it. So to protect your identity you're going to need some kind of disguise."

Chichi started walking along side the two of them, "That's a good idea Bulma, I know I sure don't want the press at my door at all hours of the night trying to get the latest story on the city's newest hero."

Bulma closed her eyes happily and smiled, "Let's go back to my place real quick, I might just have something."

Once the group finished their shopping, Bulma drove them over to the Capsule Corp building in West City. Vegeta was more than happy to push the sitting responsibilities off to someone else once they arrived, so Chichi watched the boys while Bulma took Gohan back to the lab.

"I've actually been working on this for a few years now since the Cell Games. Back then it was challenging enough just mimicking Vegeta's armor that was capable of expanding to enormous size with enough elasticity to return to its original shape once free of stress without permanent stretching. Well let's just say that since then I've made some enhancements!" Bulma grinned as she pulled out a capsule and opened it to reveal a manikin wearing her customized space armor.

The body suite to the armor was still skin tight and entirely black. Rather than cloth boots and gloves the armor had dark navy blue plating which entirely covered the lower legs and forearms with various built in gadgetry. Brighter blue Elbow plates and knee plates attached to the arm and leg pieces for added protection and provided a jagged accented look. Rather than a full chest piece the armor came with a pointed covering that angled out only half way down the chest, but had full shoulder pads matching the knee and elbow plates. In the center of the short chest piece shined a bright red lens like a large jewel.

"Wow…" Gohan looked over the suit amazed at how space aged it looked. "What does it do?"

Bulma had to laugh before beginning, "Well as I said it is much more advanced than the original saiyan armor was. It has the same mobility even with the thicker plating. The plating is actually ionized silicone based which gives it the same elasticity as the rest of the suit. The leg parts are equipped with flight stabilizers which detect freefall and compensate with gravitic thrust waves to help cushion the user's fall. The panel inside the left arm controls all the function settings of the suit and can also act as a radar capable of locating objects such as unearthly metals, dragon balls, and energy sources. It also picks up any band of radio frequency. The chest armor has a force field emitter here under the red lens. To conserve power it has a setting to activate only when the suit detects incoming projectiles. It has no problem absorbing bullets and can nullify energy waves up to power level five hundred thousand on the scouter scale. Compared to you and Vegeta I know that's practically nothing, but it's a lot more than the old suits protected you from."

Gohan whistled as he listened to everything this suit could do, "Wow Bulma… It really sounds like you've put a lot of work into this… are you sure you want to let me have it?"

Bulma laughed, "Gohan, I made this suit to be used you know. I just need to make a few adjustments to make it a little more convenient for you. We're going to need something to kind of conceal your face most of all to protect your identity. And I also think we can use a special capsule to make it immediately deploy… Yes, let me check into that… OH! I suppose we should also theme it with whatever you're going to call yourself. Have you put any thought into that yet?"

"Ummm…" Gohan scratched his head, then rubbed his chin and looked from side to side, "Call myself… Like an actual super hero name… Super… Mega… Ultra…"

"Looks like I should have given you some more warning," Bulma sat down and watched the thought process for a moment.

"Wow this is hard…" Gohan paced around the room, "I guess I want something kind of original, cool sounding, simple, and it needs to strike fear into bad guys…"

"Yeah you don't want to completely rip off a comic book or anything like that, unless it's old enough that people wouldn't get it anymore," Bulma joked.

"Old…" Gohan perked up, "what about something like from mythology?"

"You're on to something now!" Bulma cheered.

"I've been enjoying Norse Mythology lately, maybe something like… Odin!"

Bulma nodded, "Very cool idea, it will take a while to theme a space suit to look more Norse god like. They wore lots of armor didn't they?"

Gohan frowned again, "I don't want to make this hard on you Bulma, and that probably would take a lot away from how cool the suit already looks… It would probably be easier to theme it like an animal of some kind. Saiyans transform in oozarus which seems cool, except a small monkey probably isn't that cool…" Bulma was about to interject when Gohan lit up again, "A mythological creature! Something that everyone would understand when they see it no matter who they are… Something like… a dragon! Like Shen-ron!"

"That gives us some concrete design cues, and you're right, no matter where they're from, even Namekians know what a dragon is," Bulma rolled over to her computer and started making design changes on the screen to the suit. "This shouldn't take long at all for something this easy, give me about an hour. Oh and tell your mom sorry for the wait and that I insist you all stay for dinner tonight!"

Gohan smiled at the thought of dinner, "Alright, thanks a lot Bulma! Really! You're too cool!" Gohan ran off to go let his mother know.

Once Chichi had agreed to stay for dinner, Gohan was on his way back to go watch Bulma work when Vegeta stopped him in the hallway, "Have you been keeping up with your training brat?"

Gohan scratched the back of his head, "When I have time by myself out in the woods I train still."

"In the woods? You call that training? Follow me," Vegeta started walking back the other way.

"Where are we going?" Gohan asked as he followed close behind the prince.

"The gravity chamber for a sparring session," Vegeta smirked.

Gohan gulped, "Oh boy…" Though a little worried, Gohan followed Vegeta into the room and shut the door behind him as Vegeta turned up the gravity to his favorite five hundred times that of earth. Gohan set his nicer clothes aside where they'd be safe and faced the prince.

"Alright boy, now fight me!" Vegeta turned and dashed toward Gohan. Gohan wasted no time to jump into the fight as well…

An hour later the door to the gravity chamber swung open and two beat up saiyans emerged, "Not bad punk…"

Gohan couldn't help but laugh, "Wow so I've been promoted from brat to punk now?"

Vegeta snickered as the intercom went off, "Dinner is ready!"

"Come on then," Vegeta nodded to Gohan, "Sustenance is important after a fierce workout."

"Wait…" Gohan panicked looking down at his bruised form, "My mom is in there and she'll lecture me for hours if she sees me like this…"

Vegeta snickered, "Always that constant fear of the harpy. Fine, take this!" Vegeta tossed Gohan a senzu bean and took one for himself.

"Thanks a lot Vegeta!" Gohan swallowed the bean and ran to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

Once Gohan was out of site Vegeta smirked almost proudly and walked toward the dining room.

Dinner ended and Bulma showed Gohan and Chichi what she'd managed to come up with.

Gohan and his mom looked on in awe at the new modifications to the suit such as a helmet which tapered into a dragon like snout above the eyes, an open dragon's maw around the red lens on the chest piece, and a ribbed armored spine going down the back. "I decided a helmet would be the best way to go to conceal your identity. It interfaces with the control panel on the arm piece to display information. It's designed to function just like a scouter, in fact the entire visor is the exact same red filament display screen that scouters use. There's also a speaker and transmitter on the left side to let you tune in and broadcast on those radio frequencies easier." Bulma handed the helmet to Gohan to let him look it over better, "Oh, and since I was modifying the chest piece, I went ahead and threw in one more surprise,"

Gohan was still admiring all the functionality of the helmet, "A surprise? Like what?"

"Well if I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise," Bulma grinned like an evil genius.

Gohan could hardly believe all this amazing tech as he put the helmet back on the manikin, "This is awesome Bulma! I can't believe you came up with this in only an hour!"

Bulma laughed, "Thanks to the auto draft and production equipment around here, that actually only took me about twenty minutes, the belt took the other forty."

"Belt?" Gohan was unsure why his costume needed a belt at this point.

Bulma nodded, "I wanted to make sure the belt looked ordinary enough that it wouldn't draw attention while you're wearing it in normal clothes, but also continued the patterns of the armor to look right once you switch over."

Gohan still didn't quite understand quite what made the belt so important in the first place.

Bulma caught the confused look and explained further, "The belt has a specially designed capsule in the buckle you see. Watch what happens when I press this button." Bulma demonstrated by clicking the button in and the entire suit on the manikin disappeared.

"Now put the belt on, Gohan," Gohan finally started understanding as he threaded the belt through the loops on his slacks. Rather than a normal belt buckle, it had a thick metal clasp with a small switch under the side that wouldn't be able be hit easily by accident.

"You said this button?" Gohan pointed at the buckle.

"That's it, go ahead and try it," Bulma crossed her fingers that it would work right.

Gohan pushed it, and in a flash of light the new armor was properly adorned on his frame, "Whoa… that is cool Bulma!"

Chichi nodded in approval, "You are amazing, it looks really good."

Bulma laughed, "The harder part was getting it to switch out Gohan's clothes for the suit. The suit is basically skin tight, so obviously if he's wearing other clothes it wouldn't be able to simply place the armor over it. In all honesty I kind of rushed the programming and was crossing my fingers that it would work right and not leave him naked."

Chichi laughed along with Bulma and only made Gohan blush slightly.

"Well I'm glad that didn't happen, and really this suit is awesome Bulma! I actually can't wait to use it!" Gohan hit the button to return to his normal clothes and in a flash of light Gohan's arms were sleeved through his pant legs, his shirt was wrapped around his lower torso, and his underwear was being worn on his head. Gohan fell over to the side due to the constraining shirt on his legs and looked pleadingly over at Bulma, "Can you please fix this?"

Bulma and Chichi couldn't help but break out into a full fit of laughter much to Gohan's embarrassment. He managed to get the belt off and give it to Bulma as she moved a screen over to give him some privacy to fix his clothes.

The problem was fixed in less than fifteen minutes and Chichi loaded her boys into her car waving goodbye to the Briefs. During the drive back home Chichi couldn't help but notice the smile on Gohan's face reflected in the window as he stared out the side of the car. So far her plan was looking to be a success!

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><p>End Chapter<p>

Thank you much for checking into yet another story. I'm in the middle of making the mad dash to 50,000 words in November, and this first chapter is already 10% of that goal. The way I write, chances are even if I do make 50,000 words, that won't be enough to actually finish this story. I do want to see this finished, but also have a lot of other neglected stories. Please leave me a review and let me know if you think this story has potential.

Thanks and 'til next time!


	2. The First Day

Thanks for continuing on to chapter two! First off I wanted to thank the reviewers from chapter one:

Mustafa123

cmac103 – Thanks for the encouragement, I'll do my best to make it by the deadline!

Ern Estine 13624

SSJ2Luke – I'm glad people still enjoy a descriptive fight scene, I'll be sure and go all out when we get to the good fights later in the story!

Dyton – I love the insight; that helps so much! I agree entirely with you, though I will do my best to keep Gohan from fighting in his birthday suit unless absolutely necessary.

And our two guests!

As much as I'm rushing through writing this story, I'm trying to take it a little slow with the development. I want to focus a lot of the story on the character interaction and development between Gohan and his friends while throwing a little excitement here and there. At least for now. I hope you all enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 2: The First Day<p>

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><p>The class room was loud and talkative as Videl Satan ran through the door and found her seat just before the bell rang to signify the beginning of instruction.<p>

"Running a tad on the late side huh Videl?" a blond girl beside her smiled as Videl sat down.

"Hi Erasa. There was a grocery store on my way in that was being held up," Videl mentioned sounding only mildly annoyed, much how most people would mention heavy traffic.

"Don't tell me you stopped the robber?" a blond boy with a crop top hair cut asked from her other side.

Videl grinned at him, "Stop him? Sharps, please, I helped him get away from the store. On a stretcher… into an ambulance… heading for the hospital to be treated for concussions and severe bleeding from the nose."

Her friends giggled as a woman in her early thirties in front raised her hand to immediately silence the room, "Good morning class!" She called.

Most of the class nodded and spoke their good mornings.

The teacher smiled, "Alright, now I know this doesn't happen often in the middle of the year, but there is going to be a new student in your class today."

A few of the students whispered amongst themselves, "You don't suppose it's that guy we saw out of the window last week?"

"If it is, he seemed kind of dorky wearing that whole suit and tie," a few of the students all snickered.

Videl remembered running into him at the mall later that day, "Yeah he did say he was going to be starting school today…"

"When did you talk to him?" Sharp asked sounding defensive.

There was a knock at the door which silenced further debate. The door opened and the school principal walked in with Gohan in tow, "Good morning everyone!" The entire class stood and bowed to the principal.

Once the courteous motion was over, the class immediately gave Gohan the once over. He was wearing a pair of khaki cargo pants, a loose white mid sleeve shirt reaching just past his elbows with an unbuttoned blue plaid shirt over it, and white NB tennis shoes. His backpack was slung over one shoulder as he awaited his seating assignment.

The principal whispered to the teacher for a few moments so none of the other students could hear, "This one really has a lot of potential, he's the first to ever get a perfect score on the school entrance exam. He's a little on the shy side though so please encourage him without getting the class too involved until he opens up to them more. I'd hate for him to become discouraged due to their teasing."

The teacher smiled, "Not a problem, I'll just tone down my recognition a bit until he's comfortable."

Gohan was already beginning to fidget as he remained standing in front of the class. He could feel the other kid's eyes on him and he tried his best not to get nervous.

"I'll let his other teachers know as well," the principal turned to leave, "Good luck Gohan!" she shook his hand again as she walked out of the room.

Gohan turned back to the teacher who smiled warmly at him, "Well Mr. Son, I'm Mrs. Holly, I'm the first quarter teacher for this class. Why don't you introduce yourself to the rest of the class?"

Gohan nodded and pulled up some courage to face the class, "Hi, I'm Son Gohan!" He gave a half wave and made a few of his fellow classmates snicker.

"Oh boy, this one's going to be another push over in the class…" Sharp whispered to Videl.

"Be nice Sharp!" Erasa warned from Videl's other side.

"Would you care to tell them a little bit about yourself Gohan?" the teacher pushed just a little.

Gohan scratched the back of his head trying to think of anything he could mention about himself that wouldn't freak people out… He couldn't tell them he'd spent a year in space, or fought against the tyrant overlord of the universe. He couldn't tell them about the year he had spent in only a day inside the hyperbolic time chamber… He definitely couldn't mention that it was he who defeated Cell two years ago… Maybe he could smudge the truths a little bit though…

The teacher was about to give up on getting Gohan to speak when he finally told the class, "I've actually been homeschooled my entire life because of all the time I've spent traveling. When I was six years old my mentor, Pic… umm… Ma Junior, took me across the world to study the animals and dinosaurs of rainforests, jungles, and deserts as well as the structure of ancient temples and pyramids. I even got to see his homeland where people live much simpler lives than they do here. Because of all the time I've spent away though I can't really say I have any real hobbies besides fishing and swimming which I do a lot of. Maybe now that I'm permanently here I'll get to learn more about what others do for fun."

The class appeared to be impressed, and the teacher was happy that Gohan was able to talk enthusiastically about a few of his life's highlights, "Thank you very much Gohan, now if you'd like to have a seat, you'll find an empty desk up on the right side of the center aisle."

"She doesn't mean the seat by me does she?" Sharp moaned.

Gohan bowed courteously to his teacher and walked over to his seat. He nodded a greeting to his immediate neighbors and noticed a familiar face, "Hey! You're the girl I saw at the mall last week. Videl right?"

Videl didn't appear to be too interested in the newcomer but nodded, "Yup I remember you're the one that didn't see anything of the robbery that day."

"You were there?" the blond girl next to Videl asked, "They were talking about that on the news all weekend, that some glowing guy flew in and stopped the robbery, I would have thought that'd be hard to miss. I'm Erasa by the way." Gohan nervously waved to the girl, "I wish I could have seen whoever stopped those robbers. All the pictures taken were too distorted from the light to get any clear features. But people who were there are calling him "Golden Boy" or "Golden Fighter" and stuff like that because of how bright he was glowing. I'd love to find out who he is or where he comes from and how he was able to glow and fly like that!"

"It's pathetic how people get riled up over nothing. It's just an illusion trick just like Videl's dad always says, right Videl?" Sharp looked proud at his apparent ability to deduce a person he'd never met.

"Yup…" Videl continued to sound just as uninterested by the conversation.

"Well you guys sure are in a mood today…" Erasa leaned her head on her arm as she regarded the two of them. "Sorry about my friends here, but it's great to have you in our class Gohan!"

Gohan smiled back to the Erasa as the teacher reeled the class back in to begin the assignments.

The conversation with Erasa made Gohan realize something important though… He would have to start making appearances soon as his new alter ego if he was going to have any hopes of controlling his identity and public perception. That meant that if he was going to have to talk to people as his new Dragon persona that he'd eventually be asked for a bit of backstory.

'Hatched from an egg…? No that's stupid, I'm obviously not a real dragon… Planet of dragon humanoids? Aliens have been totally overdone…' Gohan chewed on his pencil eraser absently as he thought through possibilities.

"Gohan, are you paying attention?" Gohan snapped from his thinking as the teacher called on him.

There was a math problem written on the board so after looking at it for a second Gohan stood and said, "X equals seventeen point nine seven two… two…?"

The entire class went wide eyed and stared at Gohan making him feel more uncomfortable.

The teacher gulped, "That… that is the correct answer Gohan…" Gohan looked confused as to why the whole class was still staring at him as he sat down.

"That was amazing Gohan!" Erasa cheered.

"What was?" Gohan asked confused.

"You know, after the teacher just finishes explaining how complex square route equations needed to be solved in small steps and you had the entire problem solved before the first step was on the board!" Erasa beamed.

Sharp shook his head at Gohan, "Oh man… nerd…"

Gohan sunk in his seat and buried his face in his hands realizing he would need to be more careful.

The class broke for lunch after the first two quarters. Gohan grabbed a tray and walked through the lunch line as the server plopped a single serving of food on his plate. Gohan looked at the disappointingly small portions before walking back out into the cafeteria to find a place to sit.

"Look you guys, there's Gohan! I'm going to call him over." Erasa told her friends as she stood and waved the boy over.

"Alright whatever…" Sharp spoke in a near disgusted tone.

Gohan smiled as he took the seat across from Erasa, "Hey! Thanks a lot! What's up?"

"We always sit here at this table, everyone knows better than to try and sit here as the two strongest people in school have put claims on this table," Erasa giggled.

"The strongest two in the school huh? Who are they?" Gohan asked innocently as he tried to slowly chew his food.

Sharp palm slammed the table loudly, "HELLO?! You're looking at them! I train on a daily basis here, and of course Videl is the daughter of Mr. Satan, so she's naturally gifted in strength."

Gohan sensed over Sharp's abilities and noticed that his energy was slightly higher than average. It probably was enough for most of the other students to notice a difference. Videl's energy was higher still, but he was pretty sure the highest either of them would be on the scouter scale would be a hundred. "Wow, that's cool, what kind of training do you do?"

Sharp calmed a little once he regained the spotlight, "Well I lift weights at the youth gym every afternoon after school even after each P.E. class to stay in the best shape I can. I can bench… three hundred pounds." Sharp slid his sleeve up his arm and flexed to show off his muscles, "I'm also studying several styles of mixed martial arts in courses that were designed by Videl's father, Hercule Satan himself. Pretty impressive huh?"

Gohan was staring at the empty plate of food on his tray with a disappointed gaze. He looked over at Sharp and noticed he still had a full plate of food, "Are you going to eat that?"

Sharp's eyes squinted in a disdain as he slid his food closer to himself in a protective manner.

Gohan looked a little saddened but tried to perk up despite his hunger, "That is really cool, how much do most of the other kids around here lift?"

Sharp almost laughed, "Most of the guys in our class struggle to lift fifty pounds, though a few of the ones in better shape can lift between eighty and a hundred."

Gohan realized he was going to have to train to feel the difference between fifty and a few hundred pounds, it wasn't something he had thought about before.

"Do you know how much you can bench Gohan?" Erasa asked curiously. She had noticed that he was a little shorter than Sharp, but his clothes didn't show off anything which made it hard to guess if he worked out at all.

"I don't really know, I've never tested myself on that," Gohan answered honestly.

"We can definitely solve that sometime soon," Sharp snickered.

"You will play nice Sharp!" Erasa slapped Sharp on the arm and Sharp pretended it hurt.

It was endearing to Gohan to watch, "You guys really get along huh?"

"Yeah, they're pretty tight for twins," Videl offered.

"Twins huh?" Gohan appraised Erasa and Sharp a little closer.

"Yeah can't you tell?" Erasa leaned up against her brother, "I suppose it's a lot harder to tell since Sharp became the overgrown muscle head that he is now."

"Whatever," Sharp tried to look uninterested as Erasa and Videl both chuckled lightheartedly.

Once the moment was over, Gohan turned to look at Erasa next, "So what is it that you like to do?"

Erasa giggled and pulled up her bag. Videl laughed and Sharp just shook his head, "Oh boy here we go."

"Shut up you!" Erasa stuck out her tongue at him, "Well as you can tell these two are the brawn of the group, so that makes me the brain! Scary huh for someone to be as pretty as me to be mechanically inclined!"

Gohan looked confused as Erasa started pulling gadgets out of her bag, "Most of these aren't finished… and there are a lot of them that don't serve much purpose yet… But here watch!" She pulled out what looked to be a metal bird. After pressing a button on its underbelly the wings began flapping and it floated up into the air and flew around the room. "That was my science project from last year. Like I said it really doesn't serve any practical uses, but its programming allows it to know when it's within close proximity to objects and plot flight courses to avoid collisions! I'm still trying to get it to accept voice commands though…"

"Wow that's amazing Erasa!" Gohan looked over the bird excitedly, "You're a regular Bulma!"

"Bulma Briefs of Capsule Corp? You think so? I've actually idolized her for years now… I'm probably her biggest fan!" Erasa grinned proudly.

"Really? I bet she'd be pretty excited to hear… that…" Gohan mentally cursed himself for speaking without thinking.

"You think so?" Fortunately the others didn't seem to notice, "I bet she doesn't even have time to care about what other people think of her, her personal life is so guarded and no one gets into Capsule Corp anymore, especially since she got married. No one really knows who she married but the rumors for a while were that she married a prince from some far off country."

Gohan couldn't help but snort a little, "Sorry, rumors can just be crazy sometimes. But seriously I'd write her. I think everyone, even Bulma Briefs, appreciates a little fan mail."

A look of confidence crossed Erasa's face, "Alright then, I will!" The mechanical bird returned to the table and Erasa shut it off.

The group settled and Gohan looked to his last table mate, "So Videl, what do you do when you're not training?"

Videl smirked slightly as she leaned back in her seat, "Really training never ends. There's always something to be working on, even when sitting idle I try to always be doing calisthenics like dips on my chair and stuff like that. And now if I'm not training in combat techniques then I'm putting them into practice by busting up some bad guys around town."

"You're serious?" Gohan looked shocked, "You fight crime?"

Sharp laughed, "Don't act so concerned, Videl is the daughter of Mister Satan after all. There isn't a person around who could beat her at combat, besides her own dad that is."

Videl crossed her arms and nodded solemnly, "I've also got to be ready for the annual World Martial Arts Tournament."

"Annual?" Everyone again looked at Gohan like he was crazy.

Sharp quickly leaned forward, "Have you been living under a rock for the past year? The W-MAT is like the biggest sporting event on the planet now!"

Videl nodded, "It used to be a regular thing but it was cancelled after some events took place before we were born. After the Cell Games though it was brought back. Last year was the first official W-MAT, and of course my dad won. This year they're introducing a junior league where all competitors under the age of sixteen can participate. I'm planning on taking the junior title for sure."

Gohan smiled in genuine admiration, "You can bet I'll be cheering for you!"

"Thanks!" Videl grinned, "It's still months until then, so I have lots of training to keep up with."

This time Erasa turned the attention to Gohan, "So what about you mister homeschool traveler? What other sorts of things do you do and what else have you seen?"

"Well… I uhh…" Gohan gulped not ready for more questions yet and tried to quell his nervousness, "I've been to the top of the Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains…"

"Wait… what?" Sharp interrupted, "The Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains have been off-limits to climbers for the last six years; how have you been up there?"

"It was about six years ago when I was up there…" Gohan realized too late that the explanation wouldn't help matters.

"You mean when you were seven years old?!" Erasa exclaimed out of shock. Gohan laughed nervously and scratched his head as he thought of a way out of this.

"We're trying to get to know you man, you shouldn't be making stuff up to try and show off, you get caught every time," Sharp stated with a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

"…Right…" Gohan couldn't tell them that about Doctor Wheelo, or the fight that he was part of at the lab which is probably the reason the mountain range is off-limits now. He was about to change the subject when he noticed Videl was giving him a strange, almost unnerving look, "What is it?"

Videl scrunched her face as she looked over Gohan again, "I can normally tell really well when someone is lying."

"Huh?" Gohan's eyes widened as he processed what she was saying.

"Nothing," Videl looked away in thought.

"Let's strike that from the record," Erasa said immediately perking things back up, "The past can be weird with some people, so how about the future? What do you want to do Gohan?"

"Oh wow…" Gohan stopped and thought for a moment, "I guess I haven't thought about that much, I've always just gone along with what my mom's plans for me were until now…"

"What does she want you to be?" Erasa asked still cheerfully.

"She's always wanted me to be a scholar of some kind," Gohan kind of laughed as he remembered the fields his mom was always talking about, "As far as professions go, I've been pushed from everything like astrophysics to orthopedics."

Erasa's eyes widened, "Wow, an orthopedist, huh."

"I'm not sure what I actually _want_ to be yet though, something fun would be awesome," Gohan's friendly smile warmed the others back up.

"Yeah, I guess you're on to something there," Sharp agreed.

Lunch hour ended and the four of them returned to their class. Gohan realized history and language would be the areas of study that would challenge him the most as he only knew one language. At least he was pretty sure that Namekian and Vegecian wouldn't count…

Once the third quarter finished, the students were released to their P.E. class for the remainder of the day. Gohan knew for a fact he wouldn't have issue passing P.E. little did he know he'd have a much more _apparent_ issue to deal with.

The moment Gohan stepped into the locker room he noticed that he was quite a bit more... _developed_ than most of his peers. A few of the thin boys hardly had any muscle development at all, and the chubbier ones had no visible muscle at the surface to speak of.

Gohan wasn't the bashful type, but the thought crossed his mind that he should change in the restroom stall to avoid unnecessary attention. Fortunately his PE clothes had purposefully been ordered a few sizes too large to avoid showing off more musculature than necessary.

Gohan finished dressing and stepped out of the stall as Sharp was walking by, "Oh no… don't tell me you're shy!"

With a nervous gulp, Gohan tried to play it off, "Maybe a little?"

"If you're going to be hanging out with me then we're going to have to get you over that fast. Maybe if we had you spend some time on the weight machines you'd fill out a bit." Sharp tugged on Gohan's sleeves, "I mean look at how thin you are, your clothes are just hanging off the bones man, no wonder you're bashful."

"Yeah huh?" Gohan laughed.

Sharp sighed, "Oh well, stick with me and at least no one else will pick on you."

"Thanks a lot!" Gohan genuinely beamed as he followed Sharp outside.

The instructor blew a whistle and had everyone start with stretches and mild exercises like squats and sit-ups. Once the warm ups were done, the coach pulled out a soccer ball. "Everyone will be playing out on the field today. I want to see everyone playing hard! I'll be deducting points if I catch you lazily walking the field!" The coach blew his whistle and kicked the ball over to the grassy field.

The game started and all the kids started having a good time. Gohan found out that Sharp and Videl were usually pitted on different teams to make the games a bit more evenly matched. Gohan ended up on Videl's team this time who was a very aggressive player herself.

Sharp had the ball but didn't have a clear shot of the goal. He noticed Gohan standing off to the side and a mischievous smirk crossed his face, "Sorry pal, but you're in my way!" Sharp kicked the ball at Gohan intending for the ball to bounce off Gohan's head and give him a better trajectory.

Videl's mouth gaped open as she saw the ball fly across the field toward Gohan. She knew very well Sharp's kicks could hurt someone.

Gohan saw the ball coming toward him, and not thinking anything of it simply bounced it off his head and kicked it back to another team mate.

Sharp and Videl stared in shock causing Gohan to stop running and give them each funny looks as if to ask what was wrong. Neither said a thing so Gohan continued with the game.

After a few minutes the incident was forgotten and Videl was in a fierce scuffle with Sharp trying to get the ball over to the other side of the field. The score was tied and Sharp was all over her keeping her from progressing though. Most of her team mates were close by, but that put them in a bad position to score. Gohan was still on the other side of the field though.

Grinning to herself, Videl kicked the ball up and bounced it off her knee up into the air. Sharp could only watch disdainfully as Videl jumped high above him, her foot coming around as the ball came back down, "GOHAN!" She shouted.

Gohan saw Videl kick the ball and it flew across the entire field in his direction. She laid the shot out perfectly. As the ball flew toward him he saw the angle to drive the ball to make the goal. Nodding to himself and deciding to go for it, Gohan jumped up to intercept the ball. The ball was lined up exactly between him and the goal as Gohan drove his foot into the ball.

A loud "BOOM" was heard all across the field as the ball actually exploded on impact from Gohan's foot. Everyone out on the field stared awestruck as the dust from within the ball settled over the grass. Gohan's expression sank as he realized he had forgotten to hold back on that kick. The deflated ball sputtered through the air and landed flatly on the ground by the goal.

The coach blew his whistle and ran over to the ball. "Darn and that was a new one too… stupid defective products…" Gohan gulped as he noticed the material around where his foot made impact was stretched out. The coach looked at his watch, "Well it's only fifteen minutes until class ends anyway… Alright everyone, go change and you can go home early."

The class cheered and ran for the locker rooms. Videl caught up to Gohan, "Man it sucks that we had a defective ball… We would have won the game had that shot made it!"

Gohan was still nervous from the incident, "I still could have ended up missing the goal, but I know what you mean."

"Well we still made a pretty good team out there today," Videl held her fist out and Gohan got the idea to connect to it with his own. Videl smiled and headed off to the girl's locker room, "We'll see you tomorrow Gohan!"

Gohan nodded, "Yeah!" He called back to her sounding excited again. As Gohan went back to the stall and changed into his regular clothes again he started thinking about how things could really work out well. He just needed to keep his power in check at all times…

The room had cleared out and Gohan began his trek home. It was still early in the afternoon and it clicked in Gohan's head that maybe he should do something to give the city something else to talk about while he was still in town.

Grinning to himself Gohan snuck around a few buildings to find a corner no one would see him in. "Let's do this!" He pressed the button on his belt and in a flash of light his entire outfit and even his backpack was replaced by the suit Bulma had given him.

"Alright!" He jumped up and landed on the roof of a tall building to overlook the city. The city was a large metropolis now actually. Over the last two years it had grown immensely due to Mr. Satan calling this city his home. But with an explosion of people, that also meant crime was high on the rise.

"Let's see how this all works then," Gohan flipped up the control panel on the arm piece and activated the tuner to scan through all the police frequencies. For a few minutes there was nothing but regular traffic issues. Gohan was about to fly off and look around the city himself when a transmission caught his attention.

"10-80, 10-80!" A police officer shouted into the radio. "Requesting backup, high speed pursuit in progress, 10-20 Commerce Highway and Wrights Street, southbound."

Gohan jumped into the sky, pinpointed the location, and flew off to intercept.

The car on the highway was pushing over a hundred and fifty miles an hour with the civilian vehicles around it moving at just a third of that speed. Traffic was too heavy for police to get around the vehicle and also made it too dangerous to use and aggressive maneuvers to bump and take the car down.

Gohan found the chase as the highway formed a bridge and commuted over a large river. The driver in his mad attempt to escape side swiped a car in the far lane and pushed it over the barricade at the edge of the bridge.

"Oh no!" Gohan powered up and flew in to intercept. The car was dangling off the side of the bridge as it slid on its frame across the cement. Only a little ways further and the majority of the weight was off the bridge and the car turned over and began to fall.

Gohan flew in just as the car began to roll and caught the vehicle with ease. He lifted it back up to the bridge and set it down safely. The woman on the driver's seat was in tears from the event. Gohan had a chance to look through the window and notice there were small children in the back seat of the car. This whole family could have been killed because of that reckless driver…

Gohan grit his teeth as anger swelled inside him and in burst of speed he soared across the bridge and landed in front of the speeding car. The driver didn't seem to care that someone was standing in front of him and only picked up more speed. Gohan flared his ki as the car approached. Instead of his aura flaring around him like normal, the suit seemed to reshape it into an ethereal aspect of a large winged dragon. It took Gohan by surprise as he looked up and noticed it himself, "Wow Bulma, you're amazing…" The driver of the car was unprepared for the sudden phenomena and slammed on the brakes too late. The car completely collapsed on itself upon impact with Gohan and the driver of the car was thrown through windshield by the sudden stop but he was spared injury as he was caught in the air by his shirt collar.

The police all slammed on their brakes behind the wrecked vehicle and looked over the stranger with the dragon aura holding their target.

The man trembled as he looked up at the glowing young man holding him in place. The police who exited their vehicles surrounded them, and the media hover vans caught up also, the reporters jumping out from a safe distance to cover this latest development.

Now calm. Gohan tried altering his voice to sound more threatening like Vegeta, "If you want to get yourself killed then fine… But if you're going to jeopardize the lives of the innocent then you better be ready to deal with me!" Gohan tossed the man over to the police so they could go lock him up.

The police still looked startled by the armored figure standing before them, "Umm… thank you… sir…? But umm… who are you?"

Gohan smirked knowing that if he was going to pull this off he had to uphold at least the appearance of the epitome of confidence, "I am that which can no longer lay dormant and watch the corruption of society tear itself apart. I am the answer to those who _wish_ so desperately for peace. I am The Dragon."

The reporters started pushing their way through, questions blaring out in a jumbled mess. Gohan didn't let them get very close before he powered up further causing his dragon aura to glow brighter and flap its wings and he flew off into the sky.

Within minutes the newscast was being broadcast on nearly every channel. Gohan tuned in on his visor, "This just in! A super hero calling himself "The Dragon" has appeared in Satan City!" Gohan changed the channel, "…called "The Dragon" ended a high speed chase on the freeway before any serious casualties…" He changed the channel again, a smile on his face at how fast news was spreading. "Take a look at these pictures. These photos were captured just last week at the Grand Mills Mall during the robbery. Every picture of the hero who stopped the bandits is distorted by a blinding golden light. Now look at the video taken just moments ago when this new hero "The Dragon" stopped a dangerous high speed chase on the freeway bridge. Our video technicians are running overlays to be sure, but current speculation is this is the same golden light which means it is quite probable that if this Dragon has any connections to actual mythical dragons that he may have been woken up by Wednesday's earthquake." Gohan couldn't help but laugh as the gossip channel was releasing their theories.

Gohan floated higher up in the sky above the city almost laughing to himself as he flared his chi out further causing the dragon aura to grow bigger, "I am The Dragon!"

Before heading home Gohan made two more stops as The Dragon. The police scanner picked up a standoff against some armed villains who Gohan dispatched quickly and then on his way out of town came across some teenagers making a beer run on a convenience store.

Day one and things were looking good. Gohan flew back home thinking this whole school thing could turn out to be a lot of fun.

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><p>End Chapter<p>

It was really challenging coming up with a super hero for Gohan to adopt into. I knew there was no way I was going to keep Saiyaman around but I'm really enjoying how this is turning out so far. I hope other Gohan fans are approving of the changes.

And yes I made quite a few changes to Sharpner and Erasa's characters as well, sorry. I'm going with the idea that Sharpner's full name is still Sharpner, but that at least at this point in his life all his friends call him Sharp as a nickname, except Videl who sometimes calls him Sharps. I just had to change his hairstyle because… did you see it in the show? So yeah, blond crew cut because he's an athletic fanatic and that's the style most people into extreme calisthenics go with. I'm sure I'm not the first person to make Erasa the smart one of the group, I just got the idea that having Bulma around balanced out Goku's group very well so I wanted to keep a similar mechanic going. And yeah they're twins because… pencils?

There's no way school couldn't be awkward for our half saiyan hero so I hope this chapter was enjoyable. And yes

Please leave a comment and I will get the next chapter out soon!


	3. A House of Cards

Welcome Back!

Once again I have a few thank yous I want to throw out to reviewers from the last chapter:

Ern Estine 13624 - Thanks a lot!

Scout - That's a huge compliment, thank you very much. I definitely don't intend for Gohan to be angsty, though he will have to deal with some trauma. I don't intend for it to be a focus of the story at all but I intend to make him a little more human in his approach to his emotions.

Penelope - This is the first time I've ever gone with this pairing, so I'm glad it's working out well!

SeanHicks4 - I thought it was unusual as far stories using it. But Toriyama-san has tended to theme names in relationships. I was looking at Mr. Satan and Videl (Devil) having a sort of demonic name theme and realized Erasa and Sharpner are a bit of a similar theme and that they've never been shown as being romantically involved in any official capacity. Their similar features and age led me to go with the twins idea.

TyrannosaurusRex - Then? We passed then. When? Just now. We're at now, now. Go back to then. When? Now. Now? Now. I can't. Why? We missed it. When? Just now. When will then be now? Soon. Ok... I might be a bit of a super nerd lol... it might be impossible for me to make a main character who isn't at least a little nerdy, but he'll definitely be less awkward as he grows.

wheathermangohanssj4 - I'm going to have to reply on Tumblr so I can keep my thoughts straight on this one. Even negative comments help me out since it forces me to review my ideas and solidify what I'm doing so definitely thank you!

Dyton - You have brightened my day! Thank you so much giving me the mental image of Gohan being shot at his class out of a cannon!

Penelope again (hehe) - Thank you very much for your support! I'm totally open to constructive criticism, after all I still want to improve my style and story telling ability. I fully understood going into something like this where I was going to be changing so much of the core story that not everyone was going to be happy with the changes. I'm sure I'll upset plenty more people before I'm done. For the most part I consider myself to be along for the ride as well while riding a story as I can urge my characters to go a certain way but most of the time they end up doing their own thing, so that helps me not take criticism personally. I have no intention of changing my style but I've definitely found a few points that I should keep in mind while writing.

ICHeart - I'm actually glad, I definitely see this as a character weakness as well that needs to be overcome. I think with time he might just do it.

Chosen To Die - Yeah this has been sitting my list of story ideas for a long time along with so many others... Glad you're enjoying!

duskrider - Glad you enjoyed it!

And thanks to everyone reading!

There is still a little bit of groundwork to get through but things should get a little more exciting today. Hope you all enjoy and see you at the bottom!

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><p>Chapter 3: A House of Cards<p>

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><p>The early morning hours were calm. Streets weren't overly crowded by rush hour traffic yet as most people were still preparing for their work day. People on the street were out jogging and walking their pets on this typical serene morning.<p>

The peace was shattered by a thundering crash as a bus rammed through the wall on the side of a bank. The door opened and a plethora of masked men armed with assault weaponry piled out onto the bank floor.

"EVERYONE ON THE GROUND! YOU! EMPTY THE VAULT! NOW!" The threatened bank clerks did as they were told, staying down and silent or dumping the bank's possessions into bags for the criminals.

The crooks started hauling the bags of cash back to the bus where one guard stood at the back watching the bags pile up.

The back door of the bus opened, "Banks don't open until eight!" a girl jumped the guard before he had a chance to react.

"Did you hear something?" one of the robbers inside the bank asked his cohorts.

Glass shattered everywhere as a body was thrown through the bus's windshield. The crooks all turned and opened fire on their own bus. Hundreds of rounds of ammo were expelled completely riddling the side of the bus in holes, blowing out the tires, and shattering all the remaining windows.

From the vault the leader of the thieves shouted, "Did you get him?"

The door to the luggage compartment flew out the windscreen with someone behind it using it as shield, "Her!" Videl used the door as a weapon and swung it into the head of the nearest bandit and immediately rushed the next. She plowed right through the man, rolling over him with the door and leaving him pinned underneath it as she rolled off and dashed for cover behind a marble column as the others opened fire again.

There were still about five of the men left and they slowly approached the column from different angles as they kept the hailing bullets over the structure. Videl looked from one side to the other, calculating where the best angle to strike from would be.

The horrible sound of twisting metal brought the firefight to a halt. Everyone stopped to look at the bus and noticed it was contorting. All at once it was ripped from the hole in the wall. Dust settled from the forced extraction and through the new window to the outside world everyone saw the figure in the dragon armor holding the bus above his head with a single arm.

"What… the…" The bus was dropped and The Dragon entered the bank calmly and simply slapped the closest crook out of his way. The others immediately opened fire on the newcomer. Videl noticed this Dragon didn't even try to move. He just stood there as bullets rained down on him. She gasped as she realized the bullets weren't even touching him. The red jewel like object on the front of his armor was pulsing almost in sequence with the shots fired. He walked right through the stream of bullets, up to the next man firing at him and simply pulled the gun from the man's hands.

The next man pulled out a hunting knife from his pants, "Dodge this then!" He dashed in and swung his knife at The Dragon. The knife blade was caught near the hilt and simply snapped off between three fingers, like a twig. A spinning roundhouse sent the man into a wall where he slid to the ground unconscious.

Legitimately scared, the next crook drew a grenade, pulled the pin, and lobbed it across the room. The Dragon reached out and caught the projectile and held it tight in his hands. A muted boom sound echoed through the room, not unlike a loud burst from a subwoofer. The Dragon separated his hands and brushed away the ashes of the device.

"No way…" Was all the man could say before a knockout blow landed in his gut.

The man in the vault witnessed all his cohorts go down and tried sneaking out the back. The Dragon noticed the man's movement and held out a hand in his direction. Movement already chasing after the man halted him from doing anything and Videl swiped the man's legs out from under him, kicked his weapon away, and locked his throat to the ground with her knee.

"I give up!" the man shouted in a fearful, shaky voice.

Videl quickly tied the man up and noticed the crooks in the lobby were already secure. "Hey!" She called out to The Dragon who was already walking out the hole in the wall.

The Dragon glanced at her over his shoulder but didn't say anything. Videl was slightly unnerved but approached, "I didn't need your help you know, and your carelessness would have let that guy in the vault get away if I hadn't been here."

The Dragon looked forward then back at Videl again. In a gruff voice he spoke, "Good thing I don't have to be as careful with you around then."

Videl saw something on The Dragon's visor light up. "There's a hijacking in progress at twenty second and Manderville." The Dragon half smirked at Videl, "See you again soon!" He floated off the ground and then flew up through the sky at near supersonic speeds.

Videl blinked a few times in astonishment having just watched The Dragon in person.

The police and news crews arrived almost at the same time and began questioning the witnesses. Videl was still staring at the sky when she realized a camera was on her and questions were being asked, "Miss Satan, is it true The Dragon was here and lifted this entire bus with one hand? Do you have any comments on his crime fighting ability?"

Videl suddenly realized she was blushing and clenched her fist to try and hide behind a layer of frustration, "The Dragon? He was here and definitely has an interesting bag of tricks. But tricks are only going to get you so far in my book. I'll never trust a guy who hides behind secrets and masks. You hear me _Mr. _Dragon? I've now made it my mission to find out just who the hell you are."

"We're getting reports that The Dragon has been sighted at the other end of town stopping a hijacking, we're heading that way now!" Videl watched in astonishment as the news crew packed up everything and sped off into the morning traffic.

"Game on Dragon, you'll be seeing me again really soon, I guarantee it…" Videl picked up her backpack and continued on to school.

Class was already in session when the door opened and Videl ran in, "Running late again today Videl?" Mrs. Holly asked with a halfhearted smile having come to expect it from the daughter of Mr. Satan.

"Sorry, Ma'am, there was a bank robbery on my way in." Videl quickly took her seat to cause minimal disruption to the class.

"I saw you on the news!" Erasa beamed once Videl sat down, "Is it true you got to meet The Dragon in person?"

Videl sighed, "Yes…"

"Oh come on, tell us what he's like!" Erasa urged enthusiastically.

Everything was quiet as Videl thought for a moment.

The energy dropped from Erasa's voice, "If you really don't want to talk about it then that's alright."

"No it's not that," Videl closed her eyes and thought hard before pulling out a notebook and pen, "I actually really need to get these details down while they're fresh in my head."

"You're profiling him? Awesome!" Sharp leaned forward getting in on the conversation, "How can we help?"

"Ask me questions about him and let me see if I can answer them," Videl urged.

Erasa nodded, "Alright then, is he as cute in person as he is in the newscasts that have been popping up all week?"

Videl blushed slightly as she stared at Erasa, "Subjective questions won't help this process."

Sharp shook his head, "Let's start with the basics, age, height, weight, defining features or birthmarks."

The pen in Videl's hand started writing away, "You're right, he wasn't that much taller than I am, in fact without that helmet he probably would be my same height around four foot ten or eleven."

"Four ten?" Erasa repeated, "well, he's a short one… or…"

"Or… he's about the same age as the rest of us…" Videl deduced.

"Two teenage heroes in one town huh? What are the chances of that?" Gohan piped in.

"The city is growing a lot, people are flooding here from everywhere, so we shouldn't discount any possibilities," Videl continued to stare at her notebook in thought. "He was masking his voice to sound horse, and it wasn't pulled off that well, so that also builds into the theory that he could be really young."

Gohan tried not to obviously sweat drop as he listened.

"Next is weight…" Videl thought more, "This one is also going to be hard to figure out. He wasn't very big, but that suit didn't leave much to the imagination… This is a guy with a _lot_ of lean muscle and very low body fat."

Erasa whistled in approval and Gohan tried not to blush.

Videl shook her head, "Sharp, how much do you weigh?"

Sharp flexed for her, "A hundred and thirty pounds of pure muscle, baby."

"You're probably a little bit taller than The Dragon," Videl pictured the two of them, "so I'm going to guess he weighs between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and forty."

"You think this Dragon guy has more muscle than I do?" Sharp looked offended.

"It's really hard to tell you know? That's why I'm giving it a range," Videl wrote it out on the notebook, "Alright, so defining features… what were his defining features?"

"Could you tell what color his hair was, or maybe his eyes?" Gohan suggested.

Videl shook her head, "He was wearing a helmet that blocked his head for sure, and his eyes were behind a red visor, so no way to tell what color they were through that."

"That's not much to work with…" Sharp admitted.

"The suit…" Videl turned the page and started making a different set of notes, "This suit was like nothing I've ever seen before; it stops bullets, tunes into police frequencies, projects that big dragon hologram, and flies…" Videl quickly jotted all that down, "Whoever this is had to have a _lot_ of money to be able to afford this gear."

Erasa grinned, "So the person we're looking for is a boy around our age, recently moved to the city, with a great body, and a lot of money, sounds like the list just became pretty narrow!"

Sharp snapped his fingers excitedly, "With your access to city hall, pulling these kinds of records shouldn't be too hard."

"And once you have the data I can set up a search query to filter out most of the data that we're looking for automatically!" Erasa rubbed her hands together like she was plotting something, "I can't wait to meet this guy, if you know what I mean."

Videl crossed her arms and grinned, "Sounds like we have a plan then."

Gohan leaned forward to better see everyone, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Videl thought about it for a moment, "Actually, if you really want to help then make a log and start keeping track of Dragon sightings. Date, time, location, I want to see if maybe there's a pattern to his appearances."

Gohan nodded, "Sure I can do that."

"Great, then we all have a job to do," Videl smiled enthusiastically.

"Wait, you didn't give me anything to do!" Sharp complained.

"Oh yeah," Videl thought, "Once we figure out who he might be and where he might be then I'll need you to come with me to help unmask him."

"Awesome!" Sharp seemed to like the plan, "I'll hold him down while you pull the bucket off his head, we can't lose!"

The others returned to their morning assignments while Gohan chewed on his eraser in deep thought of these recent developments.

The class broke for lunch and a huge group of students began running to the front of the school, "What's going on?" Sharp asked as kids were bumping through them in an excited hurry.

One kid managed to turn around when he noticed Videl's group, "You didn't tell us he was coming today!" and then he kept running.

"What?" Videl pushed through everyone now also curious as to what was going on. "Oh no…"

"What?" Gohan asked worriedly.

"YEAHHH!" A behemoth cry echoed over the school yard as a huge man stepped out of a limousine.

The entire courtyard of the school broke out into a massive cheer as Mr. Satan marched forward, "Thank you! Now where is my little princess?"

Videl sighed and approached her father.

"There's my precious girl!" Mr. Satan walked through the crowd and lifted Videl off her feet and swung her into the air, "Oh daddy is so proud of you!"

"Daaaad…" Videl moaned, "You're embarrassing me!"

"I can't help it sweetie pie," Mr. Satan sat Videl down on his shoulder, "I heard you helped stop a bunch of bank robbing thugs this morning and just had to come tell you how much I love you!"

Gohan watched the antics between Videl and her father with some interest, but found his spirit sinking. From her vantage point on her dad's shoulder, Videl was one of the few people who noticed Gohan slinking away from the crowd with his head slouched.

"Look it's the mayor!" Some of the kids pointed out as another man stepped out of the limousine Mr. Satan had arrived in.

The mayor walked across the yard to Mr. Satan and Videl, "I wanted to come personally today and present you with this certificate of bravery and honor. Thanks to upstanding citizens such as yourselves the people of Satan City feel safe. It won't be long before the villains of our town decide they best move along elsewhere while they're still capable of moving their limbs!"

Videl reached down and accepted the certificate without being let down from her father's shoulder, "Thank you Mr. Mayor, it's an honor as always to do what I can for those in need."

Mr. Satan widened his stance and laughed loudly, "That's my Videl, the true hero of our city!"

The crowd cleared once Mr. Satan and the mayor left. "That is amazing Videl, you're finally being recognized for how awesome and brave you are!" Erasa cheered they returned to the school building.

"This is just the beginning, someday you're going to be more famous than even your dad is!" Sharp joined in the praise as well.

"Thanks…" Videl sighed, "I actually wish he wouldn't make such a big deal out of it like this."

"There's nothing wrong with getting a little glory every now and then," Sharp got a bit starry eyed, "What I'd do to have people shout my name like that!"

"As if," Erasa teased.

Videl walked off, looking down hallways as if she were searching for something.

"Is everything alright Videl," Erasa noticed Videl had been quiet, even for her, and was growing concerned.

"Yeah, fine," Videl looked down a few more halls, "Why don't you guys get our food before lunch ends, I'll catch up in just a bit." Videl ran off before getting an answer.

Videl ran through a few more halls, still not finding what she was looking for. She almost ran past the service stairs heading up to the roof until she noticed the door at the top was slightly ajar by the trickle of light beaming through. She stopped running and slowly made her way up the stairs.

Gohan was slouched against the wall of one of the maintenance shacks, his knees pulled up to his face.

"Gohan?" It wasn't often that people snuck up on Gohan, but his thoughts had been elsewhere. He looked up at Videl with a start and Videl noticed the tears running down his face. Videl could see the pain and heartache evident on her friend and her emotions immediately softened, "Gohan, what's wrong?"

Quickly, Gohan tried wiping his face with his sleeve, "Oh, it's… it's nothing…"

"Liar," Videl sat down next to Gohan, "It sure doesn't seem like nothing."

Gohan got a little tense and nervous. He was quiet for a minute collecting himself before smiling again and speaking, "You get along really well with your dad, huh?"

Videl laughed, "We get along alright, he's much more of a show off in public than I care for him to be though."

"I think you enjoy it a little though," Gohan grinned.

Videl tried to look grumpy but eventually cracked a smile, "Maybe just a little bit."

"That's good, you really should just let the attention and praise happen, you never know how long it'll be before the next time." Gohan finally relaxed his posture, "Come on, let's get some food before it's too late." Gohan jumped up and held his hand out to help Videl to her feet. Normally Videl would never accept help for something so trivial, but this time she took Gohan's hand and let herself be pulled up.

Once school was over, The Dragon found himself just floating high above the city, looking down at the busy streets and just taking everything in. "I suppose my random appearances are going to have be a bit more random from here on out huh?" Gohan looked from side to side, "Alright, let's not make this easy on anyone!"

The Dragon appeared over the sky on the far west side of town just flying over the streets. A moment later he was on the east side stopping another high speed pursuit, in the next moment it was the south west side where he interrupted a drug deal.

The scanner in Gohan's helmet went off as he started to tie up the law breakers, "All units, 10-43 hostage situation at sixth and Henderson Ave."

Police had the entire area blocked off with at least twelve squad cars. SWAT was in position and the captain holding the mega phone was shaking his head, "Release your hostages and we'll discuss your demands."

A man in the window with his arm around a woman's throat and a gun to her head shouted back, "You get all these fuckin pigs off my street first, then maybe we can talk!"

The captain sighed and put the bull horn down, "Do we have a clean shot?"

"Negative sir," one of the SWAT members replied.

"Looks like you could use a hand," Videl stepped through the barricade and approached the captain.

"Videl Satan!" The captain's somber expression immediately lifted, "Yes, the gunman is refusing to talk to any of us and he's got that woman in too tight a grip for us to get a shot in without risking her life."

"Understood, can I borrow your horn?" Videl held out her hand.

"Of course," The captain handed the mic over.

Videl messed with the volume first and then pointed it in the direction of the window where the gunman was, "Hello, my name is Videl Satan, I'm well known in this city and would make an extremely valuable hostage," The police all stared wide eyed at Videl, "If you release your hostages you can take me in their place."

A tense moment ticked by but the gunman made no response. Videl held up the horn again, "I'm unarmed and coming over so we can make the exchange."

Videl handed the bullhorn back to the police captain, "Videl, this isn't a good idea, even for you."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine as long as I can get close enough," Videl smiled and approached the house with her hands up.

The door was unlocked as Videl pushed it open and entered. Immediately there was the sound of children crying, "I said shut the hell up!" the gruff voice of the gunman echoed through the house. Videl made her way to the den where everything was happening.

"Don't come any closer!" The man clicked the gun at the woman's head and tightened his grip on her. He was practically lifting her off the ground with his arm wrapped around her neck. In the corner of the room were two small children, a little boy and a slightly older girl.

Videl kept her hands raised, "It's okay, I don't have any weapons, like I said, you let this family go and you can have me as a hostage in their place. My father will give you whatever you want to have me returned safely."

Videl took a step forward, "I SAID STAY BACK!" the gun clicked against the woman's head again.

"Money, or maybe something more untraceable like jewels?" Videl scanned for an approachable opening that would keep the hostages out of danger, "A helicopter to escape in? You name it and my father will get it for you if I'm your hostage."

"Shut up, just shut up!" The man yelled angrily, "I want all of you to just shut the hell up!" The gun was being pressed against the woman's head hard enough that it broke the skin and a trickle of blood began running down her face. It was also obvious she was having difficulty breathing.

"Please daddy! Stop hurting mommy!" The little boy tried to jump up but the girl held him still.

"Daddy…" Videl looked at the man in shock, "This is _your_ family?"

"SHUT UP! I SAID FOR ALL OF YOU TO SHUT UP!" The man's finger squeezed the trigger tighter.

A loud boom went off before Videl could move. It took a second before Videl's senses returned to her and she realized the boom wasn't from gun fire. One finger at a time, the gun was removed from the man's hand with several bone breaking snaps by The Dragon. Once the pain registered the man dropped his wife from his other arm and she immediately ran to her children.

The Dragon flipped the man around and pinned him to the wall.

Videl made sure the woman and her kids were escaping and then turned her attention to the other two in the room. It looked like the situation was under control but then she noticed the Dragon's back heaving up and down under heavy breathing.

"You're… their father?" The Dragon whispered out much more threateningly than his horse voice had ever before conveyed.

"Please… please don't hurt me!" The man begged.

"Ummm… Mr. uhh… Dragon?" Videl took a few steps closer.

"Do you know what a father is?" The Dragon lifted the man from the ground by his shirt collar, "A father is the protector of his family! A father would sacrifice himself for his family! A father would ensure his family is healthy and happy!" The Dragon's breathing became faster, "A father would never hurt his wife and children! A father would never make his family believe he doesn't care! And a father WOULD NEVER ABANDON HIS FAMILY!"

The man, still lifted off the ground in The Dragon's grasps, literally quaked in terror.

"You need to put him down Dragon," Videl stood strong to the Dragon's side.

The Dragon turned to look at her and she could see that through the red visor this hero's eyes were shedding tears, and the look on his face held pain.

"Dragon…" The Dragon's eyes cleared as if he suddenly realized what he was doing. He threw the man to the floor. The man immediately started cradling his broken hand. He wasn't going to pose any more of a threat.

The SWAT team started moving into the house allowing the two city heroes to leave. The Dragon began to leave without saying a word and Videl chased after him, "Dragon, wait! Please!"

Sparing only a side glance over his shoulder, The Dragon answered, "Thank you." A light built up taking the form of a dragon and in a flash he was in the sky and flying away.

Videl stood and watched until the trail of light completely vanished.

Gohan landed and hurriedly entered his house, "I'm home!"

"Hi sweetie, dinner is almost ready," Chichi called from the kitchen.

"I'm really not hungry!" Chichi was actually startled by that statement as she heard her son's footsteps run down the hall. She was about to go find out what was wrong when the footsteps started coming back, "Hey mom…"

"Yes hon?" Chichi tried to keep a calm face even though a multitude of questions was running through her head.

"What dad did… was it..." Gohan started.

Chichi's own heart pattered at the subject, "Was… Goku?"

Gohan shook his head, "Sorry, forget I said anything." He ran off again.

With a sigh Chichi sat down at the kitchen table and buried her face in her hands, "The things we've put our son through Goku… Can't you see he still needs you?"

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><p>End Chapter<p>

I'm not a fan of Gohan being really angsty about dealing with his father's death so that's about as bad as it's going to get for a while. He has the complication of dealing with Goku not being around from several angles; not just that his actions caused his father's death but that his father chose not to be returned to life on his own. This should stir some complicated emotions in a person.

Also the first bit of conflict is building in Gohan's social life which should create an interesting balancing act.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you think!

'Til next time!


	4. In the Groove

Welcome back to another chapter of Legend!

Last time on Legend... Crime was running rampant in the fast growing metropolis of Satan City, fortunately for the peaceful citizens two budding heroes have been working hard to make the city safe for all. The Dragon and Videl Satan worked together to halt a bank robbery. Afterwards Videl tried to pull her memories of her encounter with The Dragon to profile him in hopes of unmasking his true identity. Before much could be resolved, Mr. Satan and the mayor made an appearance at Orange Star Middle Academy to award Videl with a certificate of bravery. Although witnessing the affection between Videl and her father seemed to put Gohan in a nostalgic mood. By the end of the day a hostage situation took precedence in which a man was holding his own family at gunpoint. Enraged by the cowardly action The Dragon let the man have a few choice words, but Videl might have noticed that not all these words appeared to be intended for the gunman. Will Gohan be able to continue normal school boy facade while dealing with underlying trauma as well as his friends working towards unmasking his alter ego? Find out on Dragon Ball Legend!

And let me thank the reviewers from the last chapter!

wheathermangohanssj4 - Not to worry, I'm good at multitasking!

Ern Estine 13624 - Thank you!

Penelope - Thanks again for an awesome review! I've been working on pumping out word count rather than focusing on quality of grammar and such, so I'm glad it's worked well so far and I apologize for any errors that will be present. I will definitely strive to do the best job I can though! I'm really glad you're enjoying things so far!

duskrider - I really don't want it to be a major character focus of his by any means, at least not yet, but after as much as he's gone through Gohan should have some demons in his head by now lol.

Dyton - It's difficult trying to hit the balance of keeping Gohan's character in tact that isn't affected by anything while also trying to evolve him into a relatable human. One of the reasons I'm starting it in this age group is to have the freedom to play with that bit of rebellion that comes from coming in to one's own. I liked the award ceremony scene also, it kind of played out a lot of possible scenarios as to why Gohan might have been upset, and definitely the image of the boy who saved the world slinking back unnoticed while the man who stole his credit his cheered right in front of him is a powerful image.

SaintMichael95 - Friends can only get so close before they start noticing things. Keeping secrets should become more and more challenging as time goes on... especially one like that lol.

unpredictable cupcake - Thank you!

superfly - It's so cool to see a ZAT fan again! I miss that story a lot and still have plenty of plans for how it's going to progress next. I think you're right, this story is a lot like practice for the next ZAT segment, but I still want it to stand out. It's been a long time since ZAT went up, thanks a lot for still reading my stories! And I'll try to refrain from having Vegeta snicker from here on out. I think I was hurrying through my word choice when I was going for something like a smirk.

Guest - Thank you!

Hope you all enjoy, now on to the story!

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><p>Chapter 4: In the Groove<p>

* * *

><p>"All month long people have been asking "Who is The Dragon?", "Where does he come from?", and "How did he come to possess the amazing powers he's demonstrated time and time again?" KSAT is digging deep and talking to the experts to bring you information you want to know. Stay tuned next week for our four part series on 'Flight of the Dragon'."<p>

"Hmm…" Gohan hummed with slight interest as he shut off his TV tuner. He had already made a few stops as The Dragon this morning and was almost to school. Gohan typically landed on the roof of the school or nearby alleyways to change back to his normal clothes. There were people on the roof this morning during his flyby, so he chose a nearby alley instead.

Once he was sure no one was around, Gohan flicked the switch on his belt and was immediately changed into his school clothes. He walked out onto the crowded street in time to see Videl run by with arm full of papers, "Hey Videl!"

"Gohan! Great!" Videl dashed over to him and dropped a few stacks of what she was carrying into his arms, "Follow me, and hurry! This is important!"

"Uhh, okay!" Gohan wasn't given much choice as Videl immediately started running again.

Once on the school grounds Gohan realized Videl had run right past the classroom, "Isn't class going to start soon?"

"Don't worry, we have special permission to miss a few classes," Videl spoke with utmost seriousness.

Videl opened up the door to a room that was never used for much and found Sharp and Erasa already inside, "Thank you guys for agreeing to this meeting."

"Of course!" Erasa smiled happily.

"Right…" Gohan was still confused as to what was going on.

"This is our first meeting as the _Official_ Dragon Unmasking Society of Orange Star Middle Academy," Videl announced.

"Whoop-whoop!" Sharp cheered.

"Official huh?" Gohan asked.

"Indeed, the principal gave us an official sanction last night at my dad's request. As long as we keep our grades up we'll be allowed to hold meetings during school time," Videl seemed really excited about this.

"Wow," Gohan had more of a mock enthusiasm about him.

"The local media has started a huge campaign to discover more information on The Dragon, and I want to beat them to it," Videl stated their mission, "My dad agrees that if we're able to find out who The Dragon is before the investigators that it will solidify our reputations in the city."

"So what have we got so far?" Sharp was anxious to get to work.

"We actually have a theory on who The Dragon might be!" Videl pulled a few of the documents she had Gohan holding out.

"We… We do?" Gohan tried not to sound nervous as Videl laid out everything on the table.

"Indeed we do!" Videl unrolled a huge map of the city and started setting overlays on top of it, "From the data Gohan collected on Dragon sightings, it's almost like The Dragon is trying to throw off anyone tracking his movement." The overlays depicted the location of a Dragon sighting along with date and time, "There's a Dragon sighting on the east side of town, and then almost immediately another sighting on the west side of town over twenty miles away. And this will go back and forth on a regular basis. Do you know what this means?"

Gohan looked to Sharp who shrugged, "That he's… really fast?"

"A Harrier Jet isn't that fast," Videl circled the two most dense areas of Dragon sightings, "The more likely scenario is that there are two of them!"

"Oh!" Gohan perked up, "I guess that does make sense."

"Erasa was also able to run the queries on the data I got from city hall," It seemed most of the papers Videl was carrying were city hall records, "Thanks, this was big!"

"All I had to do was write the script and the computer does the rest, no biggie!" Erasa replied modestly.

"Well thanks to this we were able to narrow down a number of families who have moved to Satan City recently who have the kind of money needed to make something like the Dragon suit." Videl threw all the papers but eight off the table, "And out of these families, only one of them has a pair of boys our age." Videl pushed the other papers off the table for dramatic effect, "These two, Wally and Oakley Timbers

"Twins?" Gohan asked curiously.

"Cousins," Videl clarified, "But they're almost the exact same age, and they definitely meet the physical requirements we're looking for, the right height and sports fanatics."

"This would be really easy if it turns out they go to our school here," Sharp looked over their pictures.

Videl shook her head, "Unfortunately not, they both attend the St. Ajora Preparatory Academy, the richest school in the city."

"I've heard a lot of good things about that school, I kinda wondered why you chose to come here instead of there," Erasa thought out loud.

Videl shook her head, "They're just a bunch of whiney rich brats who don't know the meaning of hard work and dedication… for the most part."

"For the most part huh?" Sharp caught on the change of Videl's pitch.

"I have to know for sure…" Videl looked over everything.

Gohan got the feeling she wasn't talking about The Dragon's identity for once, "How do you want to do this?"

"The Timbers are throwing a charity ball this weekend, I'm going to get us some invitations," Videl grinned mischievously.

"I take it we won't be going to dance," Erasa twirled for effect.

"We'll probably have to make a show like we are, but as soon as we get the chance we'll break off and investigate these two and see what we can turn up," Videl pulled out the Satellite view of the Timbers mansion, "The party will most likely be centered in the courtyard here. Once everyone is distracted enough in that then we'll start searching the rest of the house."

Erasa latched onto Gohan's arm, "Well I'm not taking my brother as my date, so I claim Gohan!" Gohan blinked in confusion and tried not to blush.

"That's fine, it'll make the best cover story if I take Sharp and need invitations for his sister and her date as well," Videl made a note of the plan.

Sharp turned around to not let the others see his excited face as he whispered to himself, "I get to go on a date with Videl! Yes!"

Videl noticed the strange turn Sharp made, "Yo Sharps, everything alright?"

"Yeah, no problems here," Sharp turned back around and responded in his most serious tone.

"Good," Videl put a few more pictures up, "Also this party has a Swing Era theme, so everyone needs to be in era specific costume."

Gohan hummed while looking at the pictures Videl brought for example.

Erasa noticed Gohan's apprehension as he looked over the pictures, "Do you have any clothes like that Gohan?"

"Not really," Gohan shook his head.

"Not to worry," Erasa giggled, "We can go pick some clothes out together so we match!"

"Outfits that match would make the most sense, most couples will probably be there in coordinated colors," Videl agreed.

"Then it's settled!" Erasa tugged on Gohan's sleeve, "We'll go shopping afterschool today!"

"Sure," Gohan grinned nervously.

"Sharp and I will also try picking out something suitable for the party then, I'm pretty sure my dad has some old clothes that would work great for this," Videl started thinking about what she owned that would work as well.

Again Sharp turned around, "A date with Videl, and I get to maybe have Mr. Satan's hand-me-downs? This is a dream!"

"Are you sure you're ok Sharps?" Videl wasn't really concerned as much as just annoyed by her friend acting weird.

"Never better!" Sharp looked over the mess of papers on the table, "This is officially our room now right?"

Videl nodded, "Yeah, I have the key and everything."

"Aright, then let's organize these a bit better," Sharp picked up the charts and started pinning them up on the boards.

"Oh good idea!" Erasa took the data sheets and pinned them close to the charts they related to.

Gohan looked around the room and ran to the back where there was a supply cabinet.

"What's up Gohan?" Videl called across the room.

"I just wanted to check if…" Gohan fished through a few items, "Yes! Here's some. I've always wanted to do this!" Gohan ran back to the boards at the front with a ball of string and tacked up the string connecting the current theory of documents together.

They all laughed as they stepped back and took a look at their 'conspiracy' board.

Erasa nodded and smiled at what they accomplished, "We need a cool name."

Everyone was quiet for a minute until Erasa snapped her fingers, "Well we are now the official Dragon un-_masking_ society, how about MASK? For Mystery Assessment and Solving… Klub?

Everyone shook their heads and laughed. Videl held her fist out, "Alright then, MASK, move out!"

With a plan about to be put into action the rest of the school day moved at a snail's crawl. By the time Gohan changed out of his PE clothes he found Erasa waiting for him at the front of the school, "Hey!"

Gohan caught up to Erasa and they started walking, "Hi, so where are we going to find Swing clothes?"

"It shouldn't be too hard actually, there are a few stores I have in mind that do costumes and stuff." Erasa excitedly grabbed Gohan's hand and sped up, "Let's go!"

Sharp was following Videl to her house, "You know… this is the first time I've ever come over to your house."

"I know…" Videl stopped short of the gate to her property and put her back up against the wall. She slowly peered around the brick pillar and looked into the yard.

"…Is everything okay?" Sharp asked nervously as Videl started sneaking about.

"You're going to have to keep up and stay quiet!" Videl ordered as she made a stealthy dash into the yard, keeping near the wall. Videl checked the security system once they reached the door, "Good, it's armed, that means dad isn't home."

"That's a good thing?" Sharp asked still feeling confused as to what was going on.

"Of course, do you have any idea what my dad would do to a boy he found inside his house?" Videl opened the door and continued before Sharp could process any of his own imagery, "He'd immediately assume that a boy in the house was dating me and then he'd beat the tar out of said boy just to prove a point."

"Oh…" Sharp couldn't help but picture a furious Mr. Satan kicking his butt and a cold sweat built up on his brow.

"So let's be quick," Videl ran through the house toward one of the storage rooms, "Aha! There it is." Videl walked over to a large armoire, "I'm almost positive I saw a suit from when dad was a kid that would be perfect for this!"

Sharp forgot his fear for a moment as he took a look in the armoire and resumed his hero worshiping, "I get to wear one of Mr. Satan's old outfits…"

"Yeah yeah, you can snuggle up with my dad's clothes after we find them," All of the stored outfits were in zipped bags that Videl started unzipping and checking.

"Alright, then let me help, what are we looking for?" Sharp grabbed a bag and unzipped it as well.

"It's going to be a…" Videl was interrupted by the sound of the door chime indicating someone entered the house.

Both Sharp and Videl stopped breathing as they stared at each other, "Is that who I think it…?"

"SHHH!" Videl bopped Sharp hard.

"Sweetie pie? Are you home?" The deep voice of Hercule called from down the hall.

Videl shoved Sharp in the closet and slammed the door shut, "Yes daddy, I'm just going through some old stuff in here."

Hercule popped his head into the storage room and looked around, "I thought I heard a boy's voice from around here…"

"A boy's voice?" Videl cocked her head to the side, "You might have heard my police scanner going off, I was listening to it until just a minute ago."

"Oh that makes sense," Hercule took a look at the stuff Videl had strewn about the room, "Are you looking for something pumpkin?"

Videl picked up one of the zipper bags, "It's no big deal dad, I saw an ad talking about suits from thirty to forty years ago coming back into style and I could have sworn I saw something like that here once."

Mr. Satan rubbed the stubble on his chin, "I think you're right, in fact it should be in this armoire here."

Videl held a hand out but Mr. Satan immediately swung the door open, "Now where was it… I forgot how packed I left these things."

Videl peaked over her dad's shoulder and sure enough she saw no sign of Sharp on the left or the right side of the armoire. She looked up and noticed his face from behind a box on the top shelf.

"I think this might be part of it," Mr. Satan pulled out a hat box from the bottom, "Wow, it's been a while since I've gone through any of this stuff, just look at all the dust on this stuff," he blew the dust off the top of the box and sent a cloud scattering up into the armoire.

Sharp clenched his eyes shut and tried as best he could to stifle his need to sneeze. It was no good, "AH-CHOO!"

"What the?!" Mr. Satan jumped back from the armoire.

Videl pinched her nose, "Sorry dad, just so much dust on some of this stuff."

Mr. Satan looked confused, "That didn't sound like it came from you."

"I must have sneezed so hard that it echoed around the room," Videl sniffed for effect, "I am a Satan after all, powerful sneezes are a given."

"You have a point," Hercule scratched his head as he picked the box back up.

Videl tugged on her dad's arm, "Let's look more later, we'll leave all the doors open and let the room air out and maybe it will be better to look through stuff."

"That's not a bad idea, it's time for some afternoon snacks anyway," Hercule allowed himself to led out of the room by his daughter.

Sharp nearly collapsed as the tension of the moment subsided, "Too close…"

Gohan and Erasa entered their third store still looking for something that would fit their tastes, "Oh what do you think of these?" Erasa ran over to where a bunch of bowler hats were on display.

Gohan cocked his head to the side as he looked at them over, "I don't mind."

"You've been saying that about everything," Erasa stuck her tongue out at the boy.

"Sorry, I'm just not all that into fashion. Honestly I hadn't even heard of swing culture until today," Gohan lowered his eyes in apology.

"That's understandable, but don't worry about whether or not it matches the culture, I'll find the stuff that works and you just let me know if you like it," Erasa squeezed Gohan's hand to give him some reassurance.

Gohan warmed up to the idea, "Thanks, that's really cool of you."

"Suspenders!" Erasa almost shouted suddenly.

"Huh?" Gohan followed her gaze to a pair of high pants with a Y suspender.

"Suspenders are definitely big in swing culture, what do you think?" Erasa tried again.

Gohan looked them over for a moment, "I could see myself in them. Though I've never been much of a suspender guy."

"Hmmm…" Erasa thought, "This is a challenge, but I won't give up! In fact…" Erasa looked over at another manikin on display, "Oh… I just had an idea."

"What?" Gohan tried to follow whatever Erasa was looking at, "Will that really work?"

Erasa walked over to the manikin wearing a sailor outfit, "It's a stretch, but the right vintage we can make it work."

Gohan grinned as he looked it over, "Yeah, I'm definitely game for something like that."

"Great!" Erasa beamed, "Then let's put yours together first." Erasa grabbed the white suit and ushered Gohan into the changing room, "Try this on and let's see how you look."

"Okay…" Gohan did as he was told and put on the sailor's outfit. "I'm not sure this is the right look."

"Let's see!" Erasa called impatiently. Gohan stepped out of the changing room so Erasa could take a look. "Awwww, you're adorable! You look like a school kid from the old cartoons with the ribbon hat and everything!" Erasa practically sqweed as she snapped a few photos with her phone.

Gohan smirked and crossed his arms, "Yeah not the look we're shooting for."

Erasa smiled innocently, "Nooo I guess not." Gohan stepped back into the changing room to take the outfit off. Before he had his normal clothes back on another outfit was thrown over the door, "Try this one."

"K," Gohan pulled down the new outfit and held it up in front of the mirror, "Hey… this is a good one."

"I'm glad you think so!" Erasa grinned to herself.

"I think the shirt might actually be a little too big," Gohan looked it over in the mirror before stepping out, "the sleeves are good but the collar is almost as wide as my shoulders."

"That's the style!" Erasa giggled picturing Gohan with the shirt slipping down one arm, "Just tie it off a bit with the neckerchief, but the opening should have a low cut in the front."

"Got it," Gohan fumbled with it for a moment before stepping out again.

The suit this time was black with stripes on the cuffs, a fake rank on the arms, the tar flap collar had the standard three stripes, and Erasa laughed noticing the neckerchief was tied wrong, "It's supposed to look more like this." Erasa undid the knot and then redid it so it hung down. "There!"

Gohan looked into the mirror again, "Yeah, that does look better!"

Erasa completed his look by dropping a white Dixie cup style hat over his head, "Nice tan by the way Mr. Swimmer, you definitely make this outfit look good."

"Umm… thanks," Gohan blushed more as he turned around to check the suit from all angles, "This costume looks really familiar for some reason…"

"It's almost exactly what the Cracker Jack boy wears," Erasa giggled, "Don't worry, that's perfect for this old time theme party, it wasn't uncommon for sailors to stop at a dance hall while on leave before changing."

"Cool, I'm glad this works then," Gohan went ahead and struck a pose as Erasa snapped another photo.

"All we need are some matching dance shoes and you're finished," Erasa put her phone away as she grabbed a set of clothes she already had pulled aside, "Alright, my turn!"

Gohan waited patiently while Erasa used the changing room. She took a little bit longer to change than he had, but when the door opened Erasa happily marched out, "Attention soldier!"

"Oh wow," Erasa's outfit matched Gohan's with a black sailor shirt, skirt, and tar flap, but her neckerchief was red and her white sailor cap had a rim.

"I'm pretty sure having a hat like this means I'm your superior officer," Erasa teased.

"Aye aye, sir!" Gohan mock saluted.

Erasa leaned against Gohan and pulled out her phone to snap a selfie of the two of them together. The two changed back into their regular clothes and paid for their costumes.

"Even if we don't find The Dragon, I think this weekend will be fun!" Erasa skipped happily.

Gohan couldn't help but smile back, "I think you're right."

The sun was starting to set as Gohan walked Erasa home. Sharp approached from the other direction looking a little frazzled, "Whoa there, are you alright bro?"

Sharp popped his neck and stretched, "I just spent the whole afternoon scrunched into a space behind some boxes on the top shelf of Mr. Satan's closet.

Neither Erasa nor Gohan knew how to take that, "Do we want to know?"

Sharp moaned out, "Videl freaked out that if her dad found a boy in the house that he'd flip and do who knows what, so when he got home early I had to hide until he ate enough to take a nap."

"Did you at least find an outfit for the party?" Sharp nodded to Erasa and held up his backpack which was overly stuffed.

"Well at least that's out of the way," Sharp weakly waved an affirmation and headed into the house. Erasa just shook her head as she watched him trudge, "Thanks again for hanging out this evening Gohan, we'll have to do it again sometime."

"Yeah for sure!" Gohan waved and started walking off.

"Oh, Gohan!" Erasa called before he got too far. Once Gohan turned around she continued, "Be sure and watch a few swing videos on the net to get the idea of how the dances are going to go. I'm about to go do that too and hopefully brush up on my moves."

"Right!" Gohan looked like the notion just clicked in his head, "Dancing, need to know how to dance like that… Alright see ya later!"

Erasa giggled again as she watched Gohan walk away.

Once Gohan was a good bit out of sight from anyone, he flipped the switch on his belt, made a few guest appearances in town, and flew towards Capsule Corp. He landed on the balcony he and his friends normally entered from and knocked. Bulma took just a minute to answer, "That is one sharp looking super hero," Bulma admired her work for a second, "How are you doing today kid?"

Gohan switched his outfits again, "Bulma, I need to learn how to dance!"

Bulma laughed which caused Gohan to look away embarrassed, "Sorry Gohan, I should have figured you'd have a school dance sooner or later."

"Actually…" Gohan started thinking about how he was going to explain this situation, "I'm going to a party with some friends of mine. It's a swing party so I'm supposed to know a bit about swing dancing so we don't look suspicious while we investigate this guy who might be The Dragon."

Bulma stopped laughing and looked Gohan over curiously, "You're trying to figure out who The Dragon is?"

"Well…" Gohan scratched his head, "My friends started this Dragon Unmasking club, and I ended up becoming part of it, so I'm supposed to help them figure out who The Dragon is."

"I suppose that's actually the best way to keep your identity a secret is to work with the people trying to figure the mystery out," Bulma shrugged.

"Yeah, so they think the guy at this party might be The Dragon, so we're going to go and search the place for any clues to figure out if he is or isn't," Gohan explained.

"Well at least we already know you won't find much of anything, so I guess it'd be best to concentrate on the dancing," Bulma waved Gohan over, "Swing dancing you say, that sounds like fun."

Gohan followed close behind, "Thanks Bulma, I was told there were videos on the net that could help."

"Of course, StarTube has everything!" Bulma pulled out a controller and pointed it at the TV. Soon hundreds of results were displayed for "How to Swing Dance".

"Wow," Gohan scrolled through the results.

"I'm going to grab a drink before we get started, you want anything?" Bulma offered.

"I'm good, thanks!" The first video started playing and Gohan watched intently what was involved.

Footsteps were coming up the stairs, but they definitely weren't Bulma's, "Are you here to train punk?"

"Hey Vegeta, not today, I'm actually trying to learn how dance like this," Gohan pointed to the screen.

Vegeta watched the video for a moment, "What purpose do these movements serve?"

"Umm…" Gohan tried to think of the best way to explain this to Vegeta, "It's socializing; you dance with your partner for fun… I think."

Vegeta raised an eyebrow but continued to watch the video.

"You should learn how to dance too," Bulma announced her presence from behind Vegeta.

"HA!" Vegeta scoffed, "If it serves no benefit to my combat style then it is little more than pointless."

"But dancing could help you fight better, it teaches you a wider range of motions that you otherwise wouldn't put your body through," In actuality Bulma thought it might actually be nice to get Vegeta to dance with her.

Vegeta appeared to be considering it, "Very well, our training will begin immediately."

Bulma inwardly cheered.

"Punk, gravity chamber, now!" Both Bulma and Gohan stared blankly at Vegeta.

"Vegeta honey, dancing doesn't really…" Bulma tried to talk Vegeta out of the gravity chamber.

"Nonsense," Vegeta countered immediately, "if it is going to have exceptional physical value then the effects will be amplified through the use of higher gravity."

Bulma sighed then looked over at Gohan and whispered, "Sorry…"

Inside the gravity chamber, Vegeta was already turning the gravity up past six hundred Gs. Bulma appeared on the screen to monitor them, "I've scanned through the videos and I'll be putting up a playlist here. Just try and mimic the movements. Keep in mind that in a real world scenario you'd be doing this with a partner."

"Thanks Bulma," Gohan was still determined to learn as much as he could in the time he had.

"Let us begin," Vegeta assumed the first position that was described on the screen.

The videos first described common poses that were struck during the routines and then outlined the steps between them. Gohan and Vegeta used their energy to balance themselves for lack of a partner to counterweight them.

Gohan was the first to almost slip under the extra weight of the gravity which caused Vegeta to smirk, "Doesn't look like you'll be surpassing me in this field."

"All hail Vegeta, prince of the Lindy Hop," Gohan playfully mocked back.

"You better watch it punk, you're inside my sparring room after all," Gohan didn't say anything else as the training continued.

The session involved many slides, twirls, jumps, and splits. Most of the positions had to be held for a long time, at least long by saiyan standards, and especially at six hundred and fifty times normal gravity.

The high gravity dance session went on for a few hours before both Gohan and Vegeta ended up nearly crawling from the gravity chamber. Gohan was still taking deep breaths, "I… can't believe… how sore that made me…"

Vegeta grinned feeling victorious, "Your… lack of training… and discipline… is what… cost you… the victory… today…"

"Whatever…" Gohan waved it off not really caring about Vegeta's internal competition.

Bulma approached from down the hall, "You two were both looking really good near the end there, at least until you started collapsing from exhaustion."

"Thanks Bulma…" Gohan gasped out in sincere gratitude.

Bulma gave Gohan a thumbs up, "No sweat kid, you're going to be a killer at that dance! Just remember to keep your energy high and that it's okay to feel stupid, just roll with it like no one is watching."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Gohan nodded but his stomach grumbled and interrupted the moment, "Now, I'm really starving, need to go find food…" Gohan slowly made his way out of the building, "See you guys soon!"

Bulma couldn't help but chuckle as she watched him go, then she turned to her husband, "So Vegeta, would you care to demonstrate what you learned today?"

A loud rumbling silenced the notion, "I'm with the kid, food first… then maybe some time in the sauna…"

Bulma just shook her head as she watched the man limp away, "For his sake, that kid better not look up to _you_ as a role model."

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><p>End Chapter<p>

I've put Gohan through a lot in the time I've been writing stories, but this is the first time I'm making him dance. I've got an idea for how this is going to go and it has me excited that this could actually turn out pretty cool. I hope you'll all come back to check it out!

At the time of this posting NaNoWriMo has officially ended. Sadly I was not able to complete the 50,000 words by the turn of the month. I made it to roughly 41,000 words, but I feel I did pretty good seeing as how I started a week late. So I still have a few chapters in reserve for this story, but I wanted to let you all know that my hope is to continue writing this story now through completion. It's been fun and I have quite a few ideas for where I want this to end up now.

Thank you everyone for reading my story. Please let me know what you think so far, and as always...

'Til next time!


	5. The Dragon's Den

Last time on Dragon Ball Legend...

Gohan's friends started an official club dedicated to unmasking The Dragon and invited Gohan into taking on an important role in their new club. Despite the awkwardness of being their target, Gohan accepted the invitation and went about making plans to help investigate several other suspects. Videl informed the rest of the club that part of the investigation would involve going to a charity party as couples and most likely having to dance. Without knowing much about dancing Gohan turned to Bulma for help in learning such a trait. At Bulma's however Gohan ran into Vegeta who somehow managed to turn learning to dance into a saiyan style competition. After practicing his dance moves at 600 times normal gravity, will Gohan be ready for the challenges that lie ahead? Stay tuned!

Thank you guys who reviewed the last chapter! I'm so sorry I didn't have the chance to message you all, but once again I wanted to reply to you in story:

wheathermangohanssj4 - A keen eye as always! A lot of this is geared towards interaction rather than straight out action so I'm glad you're enjoying it. As cool as I think the gadgets are that Gohan has at his disposal I don't really get the feeling that he pays much attention to them. If they didn't work automatically I doubt he'd use them much. Vegeta was definitely OOC, but I wanted it to be a little funny and that seemed like the best way to do it. I'm really unsure of Hercule's age. I would imagine he has to be older than 30 at this point since if he is 30 that would mean he became a father with Videl at 16 or 17. Not that it's impossible, I just always figured him a little older than that. I was figuring he would have had to have been about 9 or 10 when he wore a suit that Sharp could wear at 12 since the man really is enormous, the second biggest as far as I've seen next to the Ox King. Though I could always tone down the timeline since DBZ earth doesn't have a definite era period history like real earth, the big swing period could have been only twenty years ago instead of fifty. As far as cameras go, I remember Sharpner using a "Nikon" rip off camera at the world tournament, and Nikon SLRs are huge today because they're really fancy cameras. So I don't think that all cameras have to be bulky just because the SLR cameras are big. In a world where Bulma can hide a space ship under her lawn tables that is capable of closing it's dome, pooping out the patio furniture, and then immediately taking off, small cameras just aren't as big of a deal in my book. Thanks as always though for helping me stay on track!

unpredictable cupcake - I hadn't seen a Saiyan dance off before either, I'm glad it was something somewhat original! Thanks!

Ern Estine 13624 - Thanks again for sure!

Lightningblade49 - You know Bulma recorded the whole thing!

Shidan - I'm glad you're enjoying the younger perspective as well! It is a time of great development after all.

maximusrexmundi - I was hoping to make something different but that still fit, glad you're enjoying it!

SeanHicks4 - Believe me I was tempted... I chose this way just to keep the dialogue from getting any more awkward or OOC than it already was lol! Vegete definitely wouldn't settle for a position other than the lead, but that wouldn't help Gohan and I could see him arguing for logic's sake which would have made things weird. Maybe I should have at least included the argument to make it funny and then settled for the way things turned out as a compromise! I might change it later, thanks for the ideas!

Penelope - Oh what to do if we started a love triangle at their age... That would involve a lot of drama even for me... but who knows how it will play out? And yes, Sharpner in the closet just had to happen!

Rebmul - Me either!

duskrider - That does make me feel better thanks! I've still only ever finished NaNo once. Maybe next year.

Dyton - I will definitely try. I shouldn't over promise since I've proven to not be exceptionally good at that except where my last ZAT story was concerned. But this story has proven to be a lot of fun so far and I want to see where it goes just as much as anyone. At first I was just going to have Bulma teach Gohan how to dance, and then Vegeta literally just butted into the plan inside my head and forced his way back into the story, I had no choice after that.

Repulsr - Thanks a lot!

And thank you also to everyone else who is reading! On to Chapter 5!

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><p>Chapter 5: The Dragon's Den<p>

* * *

><p>"Videl? Is that really you?" Gohan and Erasa couldn't keep their mouths from hanging open as Videl and Sharp approached. Sharp had on Hercule's old bright red zoot suit, complete with a feathered fedora. It was a little big on him, but still eye catching in itself. Videl's dress though, while a similar red, was form fitted with one black bow shaped strap going up her left shoulder, a red bow was tied in her hair, a black bow at her side, and fishnet stockings completed the look.<p>

"Stop staring…" Videl looked somewhat nervous.

"Oh sorry!" Gohan immediately looked away.

"No, the dress style, it's called stop staring," Videl clarified.

"You look so amazing!" Erasa couldn't hold it in anymore and ran over and hugged Videl.

"Thanks," Videl tried to perk up a bit, "You guys are really cute too, diggin the sailor look."

Erasa giggled and dragged Videl out in front to start walking.

With the girls talking amongst themselves ahead, Gohan walked alongside Sharp, "You okay?"

"I'm okay really, as nervous as anyone going to such a swanky party, but I'll be fine," Sharp pulled on his collar.

Gohan understood, he was also wondering just what they were about to walk into, "And how about Videl?"

Sharp halfheartedly shrugged, "This is kind of rough on her, she wanted to look the part but she's really not used to being dressed so… girly?"

"I see…" Gohan looked worriedly at the girls ahead of them, "I guess it's too late to back out now though."

"You got that right," Sharp laughed, "Once that girl has made up her mind about something, that's it, all in."

"Let's be sure and do our best," Gohan looked up and forced himself to walk with more confidence, "That will make her feel better."

"Yeah," Sharp straightened his coat and kept stride with Gohan.

The party was being held at the Timber's manor. A nine foot wall of solid decorative brick surrounded the entire estate and provided ample privacy. Music could already be heard over the wall as the party was getting started. A guard at the gate was scrutinizing invitations as the guests arrived.

Videl handed the man her card, "Videl Satan, and these are my plus three."

"Very well madam, please inform any of the servers of your needs and you will be promptly seen to. Do enjoy yourselves," The guard waved them through.

"Thanks!" Gohan waved as he walked by the guard.

Once inside they saw the complex was huge. A dance floor was set up in front of the house and a popular live band was providing the music on a stage. Surrounding the dance floor were plenty of decorated tables, and a buffet was set out with lots of food.

"This might be bigger than Videl's house," Sharp looked around in awe at the size of it.

"I think you're right," Videl kept an objective gaze on her face, "This might be harder than I thought, but we can't give up."

"We're with you Videl!" Erasa cheered encouragingly.

"Is that Videl Satan?" An unfamiliar voice approached.

"Oh so it is," Another chimed in.

The group turned around and came face to face with two boys about their age with brown hair wearing English inspired costumes with frilly cravats and balloon sleeves, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I'm Wally Timbers."

The other boy bowed courteously before Videl, "I was wondering when we would finally get to meet and talk like normal people, I'm Oakley Timbers." He reached forward and pulled Videl's hand to his lips and left a gentlemanly kiss."

Sharp narrowed his eyes but Videl seemed unaffected, "The pleasure is mine, though have we met somewhere before Oakley?"

Oakley let go of Videl's hand, "Nowhere that we could have gotten to know each other better." Wally elbowed his cousin in the ribs and they both straightened back out.

"Riiight…" Videl eyed the two suspiciously.

"I'm sorry, you're here to enjoy the party and we're getting your way, please make yourselves at home," Wally stepped aside and bowed to the guests.

"I do hope we get to talk more before you leave though," Oakley was obviously putting on the charm as he bowed and left with his cousin.

"They're suspicious, I don't like them," Sharp immediately made his opinion known.

"Suspicious indeed…" Videl confirmed, "Keep your eyes open guys, there's definitely something going on here."

"Let's split up," Sharp suggested, "I'll go with Videl and watch those two carefully, you guys check out the entrance and guest areas."

Erasa nodded, "Be sure and keep an eye out for anything that doesn't quite fit with the rest of the property, especially anything that looks extra techie or advanced."

"Right," Videl agreed before she and Sharp marched off.

Gohan put his arms behind his head and kept up with Erasa. Good music was playing but hardly anyone was dancing. Most everyone was scattered throughout the yard or sitting at tables having conversations about boring things.

"You don't seem too worried?" Erasa mentioned to Gohan once the others were out of ear shot.

Gohan shrugged, "I don't know, I just don't get the feeling that we're going to find much actually."

"Why do you think that is?" Erasa asked while looking from side to side.

"Just a hun…ch," Gohan stopped as he saw the buffet layout.

"We still need to keep our eyes, open, you never know when something strange might happen right under our noses," Erasa looked over the furnishings apparently appraising their technological value.

"Oh for sure!" Gohan grabbed a plate and began piling food on it. Though for every item that ended up on the plate, at least three or four were tossed directly to his mouth, "What kind of strangeness are you looking for?"

"Of course we need to be on the lookout for signs of advanced tech that wouldn't be normally commercially available," They walked past a tray of rolled meats and a few of those ended up on Gohan's plate, "But we also need to watch for unusual behavior, someone who's hiding something this big is bound to act a little unusual." The next tray was a display of cheese cubes and a few of those ended up on Gohan's plate, "And not just from our targets, but the family as well, someone else has to know about a secret like this and they'll also be acting a little off if it's true," A few of the bite sized rolls from the next tray were also added to the plate, "You've probably heard how they say someone who's worried about getting found out or feeling guilty won't eat or spend a lot of time stuttering in conversation over unrelated issues, we should listen in for stuff like that." The last tray had a bunch of chopped fruits and veggies, "You're being quiet suddenly," Erasa turned around and saw the plate Gohan had stacked precariously tall and grinned, "A little hungry huh?"

Gohan's eyes widned for a second and then he made a big gulp getting the last direct serving of food down, "I guess a little bit."

Erasa saw all the empty platters behind them, "I didn't realize they were running so low on food if that plate was all that's left, good job getting a claim on it first!"

Gohan chuckled nervously as he followed Erasa back to the tables. A server came by and went bug eyed looking at the empty platters, "The heck? We just filled all those!"

The two of them continued looking at different bits of the house, the stage, and other furnishings around the yard, Erasa finally sighed out, "I definitely don't see anything that stands out as being unusual."

Gohan nodded but caught sight of their friends approaching, "Hey guys, how did your reconnaissance go?"

Sharp grumbled, "Not that great."

"Act natural, walk together," Videl urged and they all started moving, "The entire time we were trying to keep an eye on them they were also keeping an eye on us. I'm not sure if they're on to our suspicions but it's definitely making it difficult to discover anything."

"Maybe we should switch tasks?" Erasa suggested.

"No way, if these two really are The Dragon then who knows what else they're capable of?" Videl thought a moment, "No Sharp and I are much better prepared to deal with things if they get messy than you guys, no offense."

"No that's cool," Gohan smiled as he put his empty plate on a stack of dishes.

"So what can we do then?" Erasa asked confidently.

After a moment of thought Videl looked up, "We're going to need a distraction."

"Oh?" Erasa nodded, "Anything in mind? A pull of the fire alarm, an explosion maybe?"

Videl waved her hands, "No, nothing like that, we don't need to panic everyone over this."

Erasa hummed in thought, "Alright then, what else could we do…"

"I'm not sure yet…" Videl grumbled thinking as well.

Gohan looked around the yard. There were a lot of people around, most of them were mingling but the dance floor was still almost completely empty. It was right in the middle of everything though. Gohan gulped down his nervousness as he turned and took Erasa's hand, "I think I've got an idea, you guys get ready for whatever you have to do and we'll try and hold everyone's attention for as long as we can."

Before any questions could be asked Erasa and Gohan took off. Even Erasa was confused, "What are we going to do Gohan?"

Feeling a little more confident, Gohan tried to smile, "Dance!"

"Huh? How's that going to…" Erasa tried to understand.

"Just follow my lead, remember to keep the energy high and that it's okay to look stupid, just roll with it like no one is watching," Gohan's words echoed through his own mind like a mantra.

Erasa couldn't help but admire Gohan as he pulled her through the crowd, "Yeah, that way we can really give them something to watch!" She gripped Gohan's hand tighter for assurance as they neared the dance floor.

A new song was just starting as Gohan grabbed a chair a flipped it onto the dance floor. It landed with a loud thud startling everyone nearby and causing most of the yard to look their way. Gohan jumped onto the chair once it landed and slid across the floor before he jumped off and kicked the chair to the side while holding his hand out for Erasa to join him. Erasa ran in and twirled several times before she caught Gohan's hand. Gohan put a foot behind him to support their weight and the two leaned all the way back over him. Gohan smoothly got them back upright, he spun Erasa once, then they slid to the side before he changed direction, leaning them all the way forward to the point the back of Erasa's head almost contacted the ground. Gohan picked them back up just as smoothly as before with a slight snap to his posture at the end for effect.

"Those kids are pretty good," spectators started commenting as the couple in the sailor outfits kept up their spirited performance.

"They're doing it," Videl noticed that both Wally and Oakley were watching the dance floor.

"Yeah, they're not bad, but we should show them how awesome we could be at dancing!" Sharp was feeling almost jealous of how much attention the two were getting.

"Come on!" Videl tugged on Sharp's sleeve hard to get him to move.

Erasa and Gohan bounced toward each other and away to arm's length in rapid succession as the music picked up the tempo. Gohan pulled them closer to the chair he had tossed earlier and managed to kick it upright again on one of his backswings. He pulled Erasa toward him and hoisted her onto his back as he jumped onto the chair. The chair started to fall over backwards but it somehow ended up balanced on its back two legs as Gohan brought Erasa around and then spun in circles holding her with his arms extended. Erasa couldn't help but laugh as she could feel the G-force from being swung in circles. Gohan pulled her close again and then jumped from the chair still spinning. He landed with an exaggerated thud to hold everyone's attention and then extended his arm in a manner that twirled Erasa away from him until they were at arm's length, and then he slid forward once again leaning Erasa nearly down the ground.

The crowd started cheering for the pair, and people who had been sitting started getting up and coming closer to have a better look.

"What now?" Sharp asked as they approached Wally and Oakley from behind.

"Now we umm…" Videl tried to think of something on the spot that would prove or disprove her case. "Get me a plate of food."

"What?" Sharp thought it to be an odd request, "Umm… It looks like the buffet is almost empty…"

"It doesn't need much on it, just hurry!" Videl commanded.

On the dance floor, Gohan and Erasa were doing spin kicks; Gohan would spin Erasa into the air and she'd click her heals while off the ground then once she landed they continued their spin and Gohan jumped and clacked his heals in the same manner. "Run towards me," Gohan whispered into Erasa's ear before the two separated to different ends of the floor. They both ran towards each other and Gohan jumped first, landing in a leg split and held his hands out catching Erasa by the waist as she approached and held her up high above his head. They held the pose for a few seconds and then Gohan set her down and popped back up eliciting more cheers from their impromptu audience.

Sharp returned with the plate of food, "Thanks, wait here for a sec," Videl took the plate and walked quickly over to the crowd where Oakley was meshed into. She took a deep breath and then bopped into Oakley's side while dropping her plate, "Oh no!"

Oakley almost fell over but kept his balance and noticed Videl ducking under his side to pick up the food, "Oh, don't worry about that, we can get someone to clean it up."

"I am so sorry, that was completely my fault, I was watching the dance and didn't…" Videl sighed in frustration as she scooped a few things onto the plate.

"Umm… Let me help…" Oakley finally stooped down himself and started picking up a few things.

"You know, you are sweet," Videl cooed as Oakley took the plate and stood back up.

"Don't mention it," Oakley was obviously a little nervous about speaking with Videl, "So umm… I should… umm…"

Videl giggled, "You should probably find a place for that dish before someone accidentally tries to eat something off of it."

"Oh right!" Oakley chuckled to himself, "Of course, I'll get it taken care of!" The boy quickly ran back to the buffet line to dispose of the offending items.

Sharp looked confused as Videl turned and started walking quickly towards him, "What was tha…?"

Videl flashed him a set of keys in her hand and then ushered him to keep moving.

"The end of the song is coming up," Erasa mentioned as she led Gohan through the fast steps.

"Alright, let's do something for it then," Gohan took off his hat and threw it into the air. He locked arms with Erasa then rolled her over his back like a sideway's leapfrog. Once she was on her feet he jumped over her back and then flipped her over himself again once he landed. They did this in a way that formed a small circle across their part of the dance floor. Gohan held Erasa's hands then ducked and turned so their hands were crossed with his back to her. He then jumped out of the hold and kicked his legs out so he could hop backwards over Erasa's head. Now with Erasa's back to him and their arms still crossed, he spun her around again so they were facing each other while moving his hands down to grip her gently by the waist and lifted her up above his head. Erasa put her arms out like she was a bird flying through the sky. As the music reached its crescendo Gohan brought her back down and her hands gripped his neckerchief. Instead of placing Erasa on her feet, he arched her position and swooped her heels up and over his head from behind as he leaned over her striking a finale pose.

Realizing he shouldn't look perfect while holding all of Erasa's weight, Gohan tumbled at the end and dropped Erasa an inch from the ground and fell on top of her.

The crowd still cheered as Gohan looked embarrassed. His hat finally descended and landed a little awry on his head. Erasa couldn't help but break into a fit of laughter, "Oh my gosh, Gohan!"

Gohan finally pushed himself off and helped Erasa to her feet, "Sorry about that."

"Not at all, that was so much fun!" Erasa beamed, "I had no idea you could dance like that; it was amazing!"

Gohan smiled as he fixed his hat and the two started walking off the dance floor.

"Do we get an encore?" People in the crowd started asking.

"We're a little tired, let us get our breath back," Erasa laughed as she pulled Gohan away from the people.

The energy of the party noticeably picked up and more people were trying their hand at dancing after being given an example to follow.

Erasa spotted Videl and Sharp in the crowd and pulled Gohan their way, "Hey guys, did it work?"

Videl nodded excitedly, "Complete success, you guys were awesome!"

"So what's next?" Gohan asked curiously.

"Next we look for clues in Oakley's room," Videl started walking toward the house.

"How do we manage that?" Erasa looked around at the servers and guards around the property.

"Videl pickpocketed Oakley's keys during the dance," Sharp blurted out.

"She did?" Gohan looked astonished, "Isn't that… umm… a crime?"

"We're not going to steal anything," Videl justified, "We're only going to take a look and then leave everything as we found it."

The four tried to be as stealthy as they could as they disappeared around the side of the house to look for an entrance that wasn't being used. "There are only a few keys on this thing, so hopefully one of these will… Bingo!" Videl opened the side door and everyone followed her inside.

It was easy to tell which hallways and rooms were occupied as they were all lit up. The group stuck to the darker areas of the house to avoid detection.

"This is kind of crazy, I mean we don't even know the layout of this house much less which room is Oakley's," Sharp pointed out.

"We'll figure it out when we find it," Videl assured everyone. They eventually found a staircase leading up to the second floor and a carpeted hallway that looked to be where the bedrooms were lined up. Videl took out the keys again and started trying to open doors. The first three wouldn't open, but the fourth clicked, "Got ya…"

Videl pushed the door open and the room inside certainly looked like a boy's bedroom, "Alright, we need to find something that would connect Oakley to The Dragon.

"Right!" Erasa pulled out a flashlight and started looking around the room. Sharpner and Videl also started looking around meticulously. Gohan on the other hand just looked around haphazardly starting to feel guilty that they were intruding in some poor kid's room when he knew there was nothing here to find.

Erasa was still looking under the bed while Sharp had the closet and Videl went through dresser drawers.

Under the bed Erasa found baseball bats, other sports gear, and some lost dirty clothes.

Sharp opened up a box, "Oh wow, check it out, he's got the entire collection of the Super Sentai Uberranger comics!"

"On task!" Videl scolded as she pulled out a jump suit but it was obviously for sports and not crime fighting.

Over ten minutes of searching went by before Gohan finally sighed, "Guys, there's nothing here. We aren't going to find anything."

"You don't know that for sure," Videl sighed out of frustration. She looked back and noticed Gohan leaning against the desk, "Are you even looking?"

Gohan looked down and opened the desk drawer, "It's just there is no way this will prove anything. If we don't find anything then the possibility will always exist that there was something that we missed," Gohan closed the drawer and reached for the cabinet in the hutch, "And the chances of us actually finding anything Dragon related are almost non…exis…tent…" Gohan's words caught in his throat as he stared into the cabinet.

"What is it Gohan?" Everyone looked up and saw an extremely stunned Gohan holding onto The Dragon's helmet.

"Gohan you did it!" Videl cheered as she ran up and took the helmet from her friend, "Once again, you're amazing!"

"Sure…" Gohan scratched his head trying to figure out what was going on.

"This evidence will go a long way towards proving Oakley and Wally together are The Dragon!" Videl led the team out of the room but immediately stopped in the hallway.

"If you wanted something of mine that bad, all you had to do was ask nicely," Oakley blocked the hall with his cousin Wally at his side.

"It's too late you two," Videl held the helmet up, "We've figured out how you're The Dragon, both of you together, give it up."

"What a…" Wally started talking but Oakley jumped in front.

"Watch what you say Wally, we don't want to make things any worse," Oakley put his hands up as if to calm down the situation, "They've already come this far, it doesn't make sense to hide things from them any longer right?"

"But…" Wally sighed.

"How did you figure it out?" Oakley pressed on.

"A lot of research," Videl explained, "We had to narrow down a lot of variables and determined we were looking for a boy somewhere between the ages of eleven and thirteen who recently moved to the city and had a family with enough money to pull something like this off."

"I see…" Oakley nodded.

Videl looked down at the helmet in her hands, "The big break was figuring out that there had to be not one but two boys being The Dragon in order to make appearances so quickly at different ends of town."

"And with that information, the two that best fit that description was us huh?" Oakley sounded impressed.

"That's right," Videl confirmed.

"So now that you've figured it out, what are you going to do?" Oakley asked calmly.

"I intend to go public with this information and make sure everyone knows who The Dragon really is," Videl stated purposefully.

"Before you do that…" Oakley turned to his cousin, "I think we need to show them."

Wally looked down for a second and then looking a little more confident nodded to Oakley, "I guess it's the least we can do."

The two boys walked down the hall with Videl and her group following close behind. They came up to a bookcase and each took a side and grunted a bit as they lifted it and moved it out of the way revealing a doorway behind it.

"Welcome to the Dragon's Den," Wally said as he invited everyone inside.

Gohan couldn't keep his mouth shut as he took a look around the room. Inside they were surrounded by several Dragon costumes, a map of the city with a pushpin board that looked very similar to the one he had put together for his friends linking Dragon sightings, a lot of radio equipment such as police frequency scanners, and several computers running what looked like combat simulations.

"This… isn't possible…" Gohan whispered to himself as he ran a hand over the suit on the hanger.

"It's true…" Sharp took in the sight of everything in the room and seemed really impressed.

Oakley and Wally crossed their arms and looked over the group, "Yeah, we are The Dragon."

Gohan felt a sudden anger swelling up, but he couldn't exactly explain why.

"So, we're showing you all this for a reason," Oakley started.

"Why's that?" Erasa was getting curious as to why the two boys would be alright with just showing them everything like this.

"Honestly it's because of how difficult this kind of hobby can be, and the fact is that we could use some help. You guys are obviously good at doing research, digging up clues, and getting to where you need to be, and getting in the bad guy's faces," Oakley leaned back in thought for a moment, "We could really use friends like you guys to take this further, a team that could make it possible to solve even more crimes and get horrible people off the streets. What do you guys think?"

Gohan had to look away, he couldn't look his team in the eyes lest his emotions betray him.

"Can we have some time to talk amongst ourselves?" Videl asked the two.

"Of course," Oakley responded, "Let me know once you've made your decision and we can talk about a lot of things."

The four of them left the room and walked down the hall. "This is so cool, don't you think?!" Erasa did look excited about the proposal.

"Yeah, I didn't think they'd want us all to join forces with them," Sharp was feeling flattered by the offer.

"After all our planning to unmask The Dragon, you two are willing to join them just like that?" Videl asked quietly.

"It's not that…" Sharp started, "It's just now that we know who they are it's not like they seem that threatening, and they really do seem to want to help people."

Erasa nodded, "And they're both really cute."

Gohan shoved his hands in his pockets and quietly walked away from his friends. He found his way to a stair well and simply leaned against the railing, lost in thought. His mind was a jumbled mess as he tried to make sense over how this whole scenario even happened. Gohan snapped up and put his hand to his belt buckle. His finger itched right over the button that would change his clothes out. As he thought about it Videl marched into the stairwell and caused him to turn around with a start.

Videl leaned against the rail by Gohan but didn't say anything.

Finally Gohan had to say something, "Videl I'm…

Videl had started speaking at the same time though, "Those two are full of shit."

"Huh?" Gohan wasn't used to hearing Videl curse, so something must have really bothered her, "Sharp and Erasa really don't want to go public anymore?"

"Not those two…" Videl bit her thumb, "They actually brought up some really good points over why having a secret identity is a good idea, but it's the other two, Wally and Oakley, they're lying."

Gohan gulped, "What do you mean?"

Videl looked seriously into Gohan's eyes, "Those two are not The Dragon."

* * *

><p>End Chapter<p>

Doesn't seem like Gohan was expecting this kind of outcome. He's already had his credit stolen before for things he's done. How will this affect the rest of his interactions with his friends? Tune in next time for more action and drama on Dragon Ball Legend - School Daze!

Thanks again to everyone reading. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me anytime!

'Til next time!


	6. All for Charity

Welcome to the latest installment of Legend - School Daze!

Last time on Legend:

Gohan and his friends arrived at the Timber's house under the guise as party guests to investigate Videl's theory that Oakley and Wally Timber together might be The Dragon. Needing a distraction, Gohan and Erasa opted to put on a show on the dance floor and held everyone attention long enough for Videl to steal the keys to Oakley's room. The gang snuck inside and investigated the room looking for anything that might indicate whether or not Videl's theory might be right. Convinced that they weren't going to find anything, Gohan haphazardly started opening drawers and cupboards only to find a helmet that matched the one worn by The Dragon. Videl and the others used the evidence to confront the two boys, but instead of fearing that they'd been unmasked an invitation was issued for Team MASK to join up with Wally and Oakley in fighting crime. Gohan started feeling anxious about the situation when Videl found him and made her new feelings known.

As always, a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!

32nd Freeze: The plot thickens!

Lightningblade49: Are they getting in over their heads, or is there a deeper plot afoot?

anonymous: Gohan was definitely on the verge of doing something! And Gohan isn't one to anger easily if no one is being hurt.

Ern Estine 13624: Thanks again!

maximusrexmundi: Bulma likes to spice up people's lives with a little extra drama from time to time doesn't she?

Sharkdude5: Thanks a bunch!

Wheathermangohanssj4: I wouldn't worry too much about those Sentai comics. I totally made them up...

SaintMichael95: That would be an interesting thing to explain... "I'm The Dragon!" "We're The Dragon!" "Liars!" "How'd you even get in our house right now?" lol!

Penelope: I hope the answer to this is a good one. I saw your comments and might have spent a little extra time adding a few more details to the dialogue. So you had a major impact in this chapter! Thank you!

duskrider: Oh no, I'm getting back into cliffhangers! I'll try not to do that too often. This was really the first sort of "To be continued" set in the story with these three chapters. Glad it worked out well so far!

Dyton: I'm glad it was able to come off as being somewhat unexpected! If these two were asked to provide further proof of being The Dragon, there's no way they'd be able to fly... Or is there?!

unpredictable cupcake: I will definitely do my best!

asweetlilpixie: I'm glad to see you again! Thank you so much for checking out another one of my stories!

And thanks to everyone who is reading, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: All for Charity<p>

* * *

><p>Videl looked seriously into Gohan's eyes, "Those two are not The Dragon."<p>

Once again at a loss, Gohan shook his head, "What do you mean, how do you know?"

Videl sighed, she put her hands behind her head and paced the small hallway in frustration for a moment, "Do you remember when I told you that I can tell when someone is lying? It's like this sense in the back of my head that goes off whenever someone says something that isn't true. I guess it probably doesn't work all the time but when those two said," Videl stood up her hands on her hips mimicking their heroic pose, "'We are The Dragon', I could just tell it was BS. You know?"

Gohan laughed at how Videl mimicked the two boys, "That's a really awesome super power to have."

Videl shrugged as she continued to think out loud, "A few weeks ago on that day that I helped stop a bank robbery with The Dragon, I actually saw him again after school that day. There was a hostage situation where a man was threatening to kill his own family for whatever crazy reasons he had."

Gohan gulped and cocked his head to the side, "I don't think you told us about that one."

Videl shook her head, "No, I never told this to anyone, it was actually kinda scary the way this man just lost it. But then I got to see _the_ _real _Dragon up close… he wasn't scared at all, not in the least for himself. No one had ever reported seeing The Dragon _angry _before when he fought bad guys, but when he stormed into the house he definitely lost his cool. His anger though was all triggered by a man for shirking off his responsibility to his own family. I don't know what his past must be like, but he carries a pain with him that he uses to fuel his motivation for helping others. I don't know… I guess there was something about him that… I admired… That may even be one of the reasons I was hoping to find The Dragon again."

Gohan stared over the railing so he didn't have to look directly into Videl's eyes. It took all his concentration to keep his voice from cracking, "Wow, you were able to tell something like that just from looking at him?"

Another sigh escaped Videl as she continued to think, "Maybe I'm reading too much into what I saw, but I think I'm a good judge of character, and even though his eyes were hidden behind that visor when I saw them I could tell that this was a person who fought hard for what he was and what he believed in. I could see it in his face that he knows pain and he knows loss. I guess that's what upset me the most today is that looking at these two morons upstairs I can tell that they have none of that…"

Gohan was trying hard not to get emotional over Videl's words. He ended up choking out, "…But all the stuff in there?"

"I know…" Videl wrapped her head in her arms, "That's why I couldn't tell the others, there's so much evidence now that these two are The Dragon that they'd never believe me if I said they weren't."

"You're telling me though?" Gohan asked confused.

Videl nodded, "I don't know why but I got the feeling you'd believe me."

Gohan grinned, "Really I do! I was going crazy a minute ago thinking the same thing, that these two are not The Dragon but that there was no way probably to convince you guys of that…"

Videl looked Gohan over and smiled back, "You really were, weren't you? Good, then that makes this easier."

"So what do we do?" Gohan asked feeling more enthusiastic again.

"We need to be delicate with this," Videl thought for a moment, "We can't just start making accusations without concrete proof, so let's take our time on this."

"Alright, then maybe we should get out and get some air," Gohan suggested, "I was starting to feel weird in here."

"That's a good idea," Videl led the way back to Sharp and Erasa, "Hey guys, we want to get some air while we think, you guys want to come?"

"Sure!" Sharp and Erasa readily agreed to go back outside with their friends.

Now that the four considered themselves official guests of the Timber boys they didn't bother sneaking through the house anymore. Once outside, the music was still going, but the group hung out far back by the wall. Things had been quiet during their trek outside, and they all managed to sit in silence until Sharp finally spoke up, "It seems like both of you aren't really keen on the idea of teaming up with The Dragon?"

"It's not really that…" Videl explained.

"It's cool though," Sharp continued, "Erasa and I were talking also and we're with you guys. This sounds like it could be cool, but we've been together for a while now Videl and no matter what we'll stand by you. And Gohan also knows what's up so if he's also not cool with this then something must be wrong."

Gohan couldn't help but smile. It felt good knowing that his friends trusted him, though it also made him feel a little guilty. He was feeling lucky to have met such awesome people already in his short time in school. Gohan still had his hand on his belt buckle, "Guys, I need to tell you…"

The sound of nearby clattering stole their attention as a teenage boy in a dark green fighter's gi jumped off from the wall nearby. He looked to be about fourteen or fifteen with mid length black hair and a bandanna around his head.

"What the hell?" Videl jumped up after being startled by the stranger.

"Shhh," the boy smiled at the youngsters with a finger to his mouth as he ran off faster than most people were capable of.

"Where'd he go?" Videl jumped up with a start.

Gohan followed his movement as the older boy jumped up onto the roof of the house. He also sensed at least five others in the area around the house with power levels far above average, "Umm… guys…"

On the stage at the front of the property a well-dressed man was quieting down the crowd, "If I could have your attention please, at this time thanks to all of your contributions we've now officially collected over fifty billion zeni towards reforestation programs around the world!" The crowd cheered in excitement, "With this money, our beneficiaries have pledged to restore over fifty million acres…" The lights and electricity was suddenly cut off before the man could finish his speech.

Several of the lights turned back on and two men and a woman dressed in dark green fighting gis similar to the one the younger boy had been wearing stood on the stage. The previous speaker under the foot of a tall man with a mustache, "We interrupt this hoity party to bring you a special announcement, The Crane Mercenaries are in need of funding much more than forests are in need of saving so we'll be accepting your donations here today as well as anything else the rest of you may have on your persons of any value."

At the front gate of the house, a large man threw the guard through the gate. The guard slid across the ground towards the guests and lost consciousness. Other body guards on the property began moving into action, but another woman and that boy from before swiftly picked them out of the crowd and knocked them out with single hits to the back of the neck.

"It would be best you not make this difficult on yourselves, as you can see normal guards are no match for us," The mustached man on stage boasted.

"Good thing I'm no guard!" Videl jumped onto the patio across from the stage and assumed a defiant stance.

"Ah, that must be the sweetheart of Satan City, Videl isn't it?" Several of the nearby assailants leered.

"That's right," Videl's confidence never faltered, "And if you know who I man then you should know what I'm capable of, give up before it's too late for you."

"You're right… We are aware of what you're capable of…" A nod was made to the large man who crashed through the front gate as a signal, "And we're not worried."

Videl's eyes widened as the towering figure with dark skin and sunglasses charged at her at speeds she could barely track. Just before a punch could be landed, Gohan shoulder tackled the man out of the way. He tripped over the man after the tackle, but quickly pushed himself to his feet and ran to Videl's side.

Videl shoved Gohan behind her, "Gohan! Don't ever do something like that again! These guys are dangerous! Leave it to me and find a place to take cover with the others."

"No Videl!" Gohan pleaded with his friend, "These guys aren't like normal criminals around the city; they're strong and highly trained. We need to get everyone away from here!"

Though Videl detected the sincerity in Gohan's voice, her pride wouldn't allow her to back off though, "I'm one of the defenders of this city, and I will stop them!"

Inside the house, Sharp and Erasa ran through the hallways towards the Dragon's Den. "WALLY! OAKLEY!" Erasa shouted as they were near.

The two boys were still inside and looked out curiously, "Why the panic? It's just a power outage."

Sharp shook his head, "No, it's not! A group of thugs have broken in and taken out all the guards at the party downstairs! They're threatening everyone to hand over all their money and valuables."

The cousins' eyes widened and they looked at each other concerned for a second. Oakley took a big gulp as he tried to form words, "uhhh…"

"What are you guys waiting for?" Erasa excitedly shouted, "The Dragon is needed!"

The two nodded nervously.

Outside, Videl charged towards the brawny man. She ducked down and swiped at the man's legs but he easily stepped over the attack. She rose up with an uppercut that was also dodged. Videl grunted before unleashing a volley of fast punches and kicks at the man's torso and face. Every attack Videl threw was side stepped and dodged. The fighter was able to bend his body back and around Videl's attacks as if he saw them coming a mile away.

"Sorry girly," Videl hardly had time to notice the fist rising up at her from below. She knew she didn't have time to avoid impact herself. Before the attack hit Gohan put himself between them and took the punch to the face and was thrown off to the side.

"GOHAN!" Videl shouted in concern. She tried to run towards her friend but the big brute of a threat stepped in front of her so she continued her assault throwing a new volley of punches and uppercuts. The results were the same as nothing made impact.

The man caught Videl's last punch in his larger palm, "What's wrong chicka? Just not your _lucky_ night?"

Videl grunted as the man tossed her back. She looked up angrily but barely in time to see a glowing fist heading straight for her. It was like looking into the headlights of oncoming traffic on the expressway, both terrifying and paralyzing. This time Videl was pushed out of the way before she could be hit. The fist flew just barely over Gohan's back, tearing through his sailor costume.

"You're annoying me kid, if you want to be a punching bag for your little girl friend, then I can make that happen!" Gohan looked up and took a punch to his gut. It looked as though the wind was completely blown from the boy as he folded around the powerful punch. Energy built up around the man as he began his own volley of attacks, rapidly striking Gohan in the face, chest, abdomen, and finally a swift kick launched Gohan into the air. He flew nearly ten meters before landing in a heap.

"NOOO!" Videl shouted angrily. Gohan opened an eye back up and then quickly both eyes out of shock as the air around Videl actually blew around her as if forming an aura. She threw herself at the man who was still smirking in Gohan's direction. He turned as Videl's fist connected with his jaw sending him face first into the dirt hard enough to quake the property.

The mustached man on stage watching the exhibition all laughed at their friend's expense, "Mymy Horseshoe, you really let her whomp you one!"

Videl's breath was ragged as she recovered from throwing so much into that punch.

"That… hurt!" The man pushed himself from the ground, his sunglasses shattered and his suit frayed as looked over Videl with angry glint in his eye.

"There's plenty more where that came from!" Videl shouted but immediately lost her bravado. The movement was barely noticeable as the man had dropped to horse stance and drove his fist into her stomach. Videl's eyes were wide as she stumbled backwards and immediately clutched her stomach. She fell to her knees and grunted loudly from the pain.

"You definitely surprised me you little bitch, but even if you're strong, you're still no match for the Crane style martial arts," The man grinned as he pulled his fist back and readied a finishing blow, "When you wake up in the emergency room, be sure and tell your dad that the Crane Mercs say hi."

Horseshoe's fist was once again glowing a white light as it flew towards Videl. The skull breaking punch drove its way toward Videl's prone form but was intercepted in an instant as another fist collided with his own, knuckle to knuckle.

Horseshoe jumped back and stared angrily at Gohan, "Damn kid, I don't know who you are but you've got major cajones to keep getting up like… this…" Gohan's steadfast stare was slightly unnerving, and then the man finally started noticing his hand. His fist that connected with Gohan's was mangled, at least three fingers were dislocated and the knuckles were shattered. He couldn't form words as the pain started registering.

The younger intruder seemed to notice and stared at Gohan curiously but didn't have much time to compile his thoughts as a startling cry interrupted everything.

"EVILDOERS BEWARE!" Before anyone could tell what was happening, a shout echoed across the yard from the front patio. The Dragon stood there, his arms bent in a flexing pose. He leaned to his left and lifted his arms to his right, "I am here to remove the blackened peel of crime from the rotten banana of injustice," he switched his stance to the opposite side, "I will add the creamer of light to dull the bitterness of your evil unholy coffee taste," He flexed one arm behind his head and extended the other out in a fist, "I will use the spatula of purity to scramble the eggs of your malfeasance," He stood up straight with his hands on hips, "Run in fear now, for I am The Dragon!"

Everyone present was reduced to dumbstruck stares trying to figure out what was going on. Gohan too could only scratch his head as his mouth hung open.

The mustached man on stage who appeared to be the boss finally regained some sense, "And to think we were concerned about running into this Dragon character…" He pointed one finger towards the patio, "Dodon Ray!" a light blasted forth from the finger and The Dragon turned just in time to see the stone pillars which held up the roof shatter and everything starting to fall towards him.

Gohan grit his teeth as he ran towards the collapsing building and pushed The Dragon out of the way. Sharp and Erasa ran from around the corner just in time to see Gohan push The Dragon to safety before the stone roof fell, burying Gohan in the rubble. "GOHAN!" The two ran to the pile of brick and marble and began trying to pull chunks away to uncover their friend.

Videl also pushed past the pain in her abdomen and ran toward the mayhem. Everything in her head was screaming at her to dig through the mess for her friend, but the gang of mercs was still nearby, and laughing. Videl grit her teeth as everyone started lifting pieces of concrete and marble out of the way. There had to be tons of the stuff covering the ground where Gohan was standing, but everyone else was still in danger with the mercs nearby, "Erasa, Sharp, please hurry and find him! I'm counting on you two!"

"On it!" Sharp strained as he lifted huge chunks of marble out of the way.

Wally ran out of the house and join Sharp, "I'll help here!"

"Good! And… Dragon boy," Videl had to nearly spit as she saw how awkward this boy in a costume looked in front of her, "do you know how to actually fight?"

Oakley cleared his throat and assumed a straight posture, "Of course! I am a hero aftera…"

"I'M SERIOUS DAMN IT!" Videl yelled angrily as she tore the lower half from her dress that was constricting her movements before.

Oakley gulped and deflated, "Yeah, I've trained in martial arts for years."

"Good, then you take the guy on the left and I'll take the two on the right!" Videl wasted no time as she charged through the crowd and jumped to the stage and launched a flying kick at the leader of the group. He side stepped out of the way but Videl immediately bounced to the woman further right and tried to surprise her with a right hook. Before she could land a hit Videl was kicked from the left, but with her increased flexibility Videl was able to roll with the attack and get back up again.

Oakley was lagging behind Videl but tackled at the man on the left. His attack was easily avoided, but Oakley kept up a tenacious effort throwing a series of kicks and punches at the man. The lithe man held a hand out and gripped onto Oakley's helmet. Being the smaller fighter, Oakley's range wasn't long enough to overcome the man's arm length and he simply swung at air over and over.

Videl slipped around the other girl's side with a fake out attack from the right while actually attacking from the left. The girl held up an arm to block the kick but Videl pushed through and managed to slide the girl off stage. The man with the mustache appeared behind Videl, but before he could take advantage of the situation Videl had already swung around with an uppercut to not be taken by surprise. Her attack was dodged and the man kept his hands behind his back as Videl took more swipes at his legs to get him off balance.

The man ducked down and spun on one heel with his other leg pointed out, "This is how you perform a leg sweep!"

Videl's legs were pushed out from under her and she yelled as she fell to the ground.

The fallen patio roof shifted slightly as the others were still digging through it. Erasa started shouting, "Gohan! Are you OK?! Please say something if you can hear us!"

The mercenary boy who came in first sat back and watched everyone doing their thing without taking much action, "Brave kids, shame they don't stand a chance in hell." He turned to the shadowed part of the house and began to walk away, "I guess they don't really need me here then."

The boys eyes suddenly widened in disbelief. Before he could sneak away his senses were assaulted by a massive buildup of energy. He looked concerned as what he was sensing was big, and it was close. He looked around but couldn't pinpoint it. Whatever this was he knew he should be able to see it easily, it should be huge and right on top of him. He finally realized he needed to look up.

A light flared in the sky starting out as almost an orb of flames. The licks of the light almost roared as it began reshaping into the intimidating form of a winged dragon and then dove rapidly from the sky. It landed on the stage and in a final flare of flame and light it vanished leaving only the true Dragon standing in front of the mercenaries.

Everything in the courtyard came to an immediate halt. The newcomer stood in a poised and authoritative manner which commanded attention.

Videl pushed herself up on her elbows, "It's really you this time…"

The mustached leader of the mercenaries grinned, "I had been expecting more from this famous Dragon than what we had seen so far. It makes sense now that there is more than one person who carries the title."

The Dragon looked over at Oakley who was staring at him with a stupid grin and almost starry eyed. He shook his head and returned his attention to the leader, "Sorry, but I'm THE Dragon, the one and only."

Videl took notice of the sincerity of The Dragon's statement and bit her lip.

"No matter," The man addressed the shorter hero, "Once you two are out of the way then only that oaf Satan will stand in our way of ransacking this entire city!"

The man jumped at The Dragon so fast it shocked Videl who pushed herself up as quickly as she could to see what was happening. The Dragon blocked the punch with his forearm, "So it seems you actually have some skill after all." The man pushed off The Dragon's arm and started a flurry of attacks, most of them just blurs to the spectators as punches and kicks were hurled at The Dragon. As each incoming attack approached The Dragon would simply lean to one side or another. The man grunted as he shadow boxed with the air. He picked up the pace another level, the swings of hands little more than blurs as he desperately tried to land a hit.

No one else moved, even the other mercenaries watched anxiously as their leader and The Dragon became locked in combat. The punches remained one sided as The Dragon only dodged for several more seconds until they broke away and landed several meters apart from each other.

"It appears I may have underestimated you," The mercenary leader began, "You are obviously well trained by a master such as ourselves. Allow me to introduce ourselves properly, I am Maneki, the leader of the Crane Mercenaries and disciple of the illustrious Crane style of martial arts."

"Crane… Crane… That does kind of sound familiar for some reason…" The Dragon mumbled to himself.

With a confident smirk, Maneki continued, "If by chance you've heard of the style then you know how dangerous it can be, I'd recommend surrender before you end up dead."

The Dragon grinned, "I'll take my chances."

"Have it your way!" An energy began building around Maneki, he had a visible aura of ki that swirled around his body, "Now prepare yourself for the devastating soul smasher!"

"Bring it on," The Dragon held his hands to his side, challenging the attack head on.

"I warned you punk!" Sparks of energy buzzed around Maneki's fist moments before he attacked. In a burst of speed it appeared as though his body warped in a straight line, extending from his original standing position to his striking point before eventually contracting into his final stance. Maneki's fist was firmly set on The Dragon's face. A confident smirk on Maneki's face stated he knew the fight was over.

A second passed before Maneki's eyes widened in horror. His fist which had made absolute contact with the Dragon had failed to do so much as tilt his head back. As he pulled his hand away it was obvious the contact he made had amounted to absolutely nothing, "That's… That's not possible!"

"Is that it?" The Dragon grinned as he took a step forward.

Startled, Maneki jumped back, "Don't just gawk you idiots! Horseshoe, Wishbone, Clover, Charm, get up here and help me!"

Maneki's adult minions all joined him at his side except for Horseshoe who was still cradling his broken hand.

"We can take him together!" The four of them attempted to gang up on The Dragon from four sides. Nothing made it through The Dragon's defense though as he blocked every punch with extreme precision with only the force needed to push back the attacker.

"YEAH DO IT!" Oakley cheered while still wearing his Dragon costume.

The four mercenaries jumped away from The Dragon and immediately regrouped. The thinner merc, Wishbone, was out of breath as he exclaimed, "Boss, we're not getting anywhere!"

"Fine…" Maneki growled under his breath, "Know this Dragon, you brought this upon yourself… JINX!"

The younger boy in the green fighting gi opened his eyes wide, "What?! Me?!"

The Dragon eyed him for a moment but immediately turned back around to Maneki.

"Don't let him intimidate you Jinx!" Maneki ordered, "We've trained you better than most, you have the power to destroy! Now use it!"

Jinx gulped as he approached. He side stepped around The Dragon slowly as he tried to measure the costumed boy up. Jinx was almost trembling as he could still feel The Dragon's power, "Maneki… I can't do this… I don't stand a chance against him!"

"Don't be a fool Jinx!" Maneki shouted, "Do what I say, NOW!"

Jinx lowered himself into a fighting stance but was obviously still shaken.

"We don't have to do this," The Dragon could easily see the boy's anxiety, "Say you're sorry and give up and this can be all over."

"I…" Jinx gulped down his nervousness as he started to feel excited, "You're strong, probably a lot stronger than I am, but I have to try my best!"

The Dragon grinned, "I guess I have to oblige you then."

Jinx kneeled down and dropped a pellet that exploded and immediately surrounded him with smoke. The Dragon squinted his eyes not expecting Jinx to use such tools in this fight. Before he could pinpoint Jinx's location, the boy crashed into The Dragon's abdomen from the side with his knee. Taken by surprise Jinx was able to launch The Dragon across the stage.

The Dragon grit his teeth and pushed himself back across the stage turned arena. The two boys met at the center with their forearms clashing. The Dragon didn't want to hurt Jinx, but it was obvious to him that he was going to need to use at least a little more power than he was. The two started trading a flurry of blows, punching, kicking, blocking, and dodging. The two were matching each other hit for hit, and as The Dragon slowly upped his energy level to compensate Jinx was still keeping up.

The Dragon broke away from the budokai style assault and took to the sky, floating several meters above the property. Jinx jumped up as well and used his energy to keep himself floating at the same height as The Dragon.

"Stop playing around!" Maneki shouted from below, "Use your special technique and finish this!"

Jinx gulped, "It won't work…"

Now angry, Maneki yelled, "DO IT!"

Jinx pointed one finger in front of him. His energy gathered from around his body and built up in the one spot in front of his finger, "Super… DODON… PA!"

The Dragon watched as the energy beam formed and fired in his direction, "You're right, it won't work!" Gathering energy quickly, The Dragon held his hands at his side, "KAMEHAMEHAA!"

"Turtle style…" Maneki glared wide eyed as the blue beam from The Dragon and the yellow beam from Jinx met. It took no time for the Kamehameha to push the Dodonpa back towards Jinx. The boy barely managed to jump out of the way before the beam flew off past him and dissipated off high in the atmosphere.

Maneki practically growled, "So… the turtle hermit still has disciples as well!"

Jinx was trying to catch his breath as he kept a close eye on The Dragon, "Amazing, I've never fought anyone as strong as you before…"

The Dragon crossed his arms, "You're gifted, why use that power for selfish gain?"

Jinx shrugged, "I dunno, I just do what I'm told I guess."

An angry look crossed The Dragon's face, "That's no way to live!" Jinx was almost knocked out of the sky by how adamantly The Dragon yelled at him, "Decide for yourself how you want to live your life and walk in your own shoes, not the ones someone else has put out for you."

Jinx looked to the side for a moment as if debating The Dragon's words.

"Jinx! Use your last technique!" Maneki ordered.

Jinx's eyes widened, almost in fear, "But… I…"

"NO BUTS! JUST DO IT!" All the rest of the mercenaries seemed to be gathering below.

"You don't have to do what he says if you don't want to," The Dragon reasoned one more time.

Jinx appeared to be having an internal struggle. The boy sighed after a moment of thought, "You're right, I don't _have_ to…"

The Dragon smiled as he heard those words, "You're not a bad guy after all!"

Jinx narrowed his eyes and then burst higher into the air. He held his hands in front of him, putting his fingers together in a diamond shape, the image of The Dragon zoomed in to sight between his fingers like a scope, "I never said that… TRI-BEAM HAAA!"

The Dragon immediately recognized Tien's signature move and tried to shield himself as the life draining attack hit. He'd never been the target of the Tri-beam before and was taken by surprise by the amount of force it pushed down upon him.

"HAA! HAA! HAA!" Each burst forced The Dragon closer to the ground until he was practically embedded in it. The weight the beam placed upon him was just too much to resist as the ground around him collapsed in the shape of a triangle and continued pushing him down.

Everyone's eyes were on Jinx and The Dragon as it appeared Jinx currently held the upper hand. The sweat building in Jinx's face though indicated he wasn't going to last much longer. With only one eye open his beams were obviously having less and less of an effect and The Dragon was recovering. With one last burst of concentration he opened both eyes and slammed down on The Dragon as hard as he could.

The Dragon shrugged off the attack and powered up to return to the fight. Once he was airborne though there was no one else around. Jinx had used the opportunity to make his escape. The crowd finally noticed that even the other five mercenaries disappeared during the excitement as well.

The Dragon squeezed his palms tight, "The Crane Mercenaries huh… I'll be keeping an eye out for you guys, count on it."

"Dragon!" Videl called from below. The Dragon turned to look at her and once she had his attention she weakly mouthed, "Thank you."

The Dragon smiled and nodded to her.

"This is it, heave!" Videl turned to see Sharp and the others were lifting a huge cement block off the patio.

Now that the threat of the mercs was over Videl ran at full speed to where Gohan was buried, "Is he alright?!" She looked over her shoulder as she ran and noticed The Dragon had already disappeared.

Sharp strained to speak as he pulled as hard as he could on the block, "I think we're almost to the bottom!"

Videl joined him and between the two of them they lifted the large cement stone out of the way. A gust of wind ruffled their clothes as they tossed the slab away.

Where the mound of stone had been was a very dirty Gohan on the ground. "Hey guys," Gohan said meekly as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, checked himself over, and then started brushing the dust off.

Videl and Erasa immediately jumped in and tackled Gohan into a hug. Erasa was practically in tears, "GOHAN! We thought for sure you had been crushed to death!"

Sharp joined in the group hug as well, "You dumbass! What were you thinking?"

Gohan grinned while scratching the back of his head, "I guess I wasn't really thinking. I saw The Dragon was in danger and just sort of reacted."

Videl took a step back and slapped Gohan over the side of the head, "I can't believe how stupid you were today!" Videl huffed then quickly calmed down, "But you were also very brave… thank you."

"Yeah, you were definitely a hero today Gohan!" Erasa cheered.

Sharp looked to the side and nearly growled, "Definitely more so than those posers pretending to be The Dragon."

Wally and Oakley looked down in shame not able to say much yet.

Videl sighed, "First off, Gohan, are you hurt?"

Gohan stretched his arms, legs, and neck muscles as if checking for injury, "Nah, nothing too bad, I'll be fine!"

"Good," Videl breathed a sigh of relief then walked over to the Timber cousins. She struggled to tone down her anger as she walked, "And you two… if you weren't The Dragon you should have been honest and said so from the beginning!"

Oakley groveled in front of Videl, "I'm sorry it was my fault!"

Videl crossed her arms as she tried to decide how to handle the situation, "Why did you lie then?"

"I…" Oakley gulped as he looked back up at the girl, "…I met you once… a while back at one of your dad's ceremonies… I said hi to you but you were busy with other things… You were really cool and I wanted to impress you so… I could ask you out…"

Videl's eyes squeezed shut as she tried not to growl, "…You're lucky… this stunt you pulled could have gotten you or someone else killed. I swear if my friend had been hurt because you were pretending to be a hero then you would have had _hell _to pay!"

Oakley lowered himself even closer to the ground as Videl dug into him, "I'm sorry!"

Gohan watched as Videl leered over the kid and with a sigh he walked over to them, "Videl?"

The girl turned to her friend, her posture obviously still aggressive.

"It's okay," Gohan worked to calm her down, "No one was hurt this time."

"This time! But someone could have been…" Videl's temper was slowly cooling over.

"But they weren't, and I think some lessons have been learned," Gohan held a hand out to Oakley to help him stand back up, "_right_?"

"Definitely!" Oakley responded immediately, "I'll never pretend to be someone I'm not ever again!"

"Then I forgive you!" Gohan hoisted Oakley to his feet.

"Thanks," Oakley bowed courteously to Gohan, "And thank you for saving me from being crushed, I'm really glad you're alright."

"Of course!" Gohan laughed happily and the spirits of everyone around noticeably lifted.

"Maybe…" Oakley hoped he wasn't pushing his luck, "We could still become friends then?"

Gohan looked over his shoulder and smiled at his friends. They couldn't help but smile back and nod. Videl finally spoke again, "Yeah, having more friends is always cool."

With the excitement over most of the party guests made hasty exits. A yell from the stage caught everyone attention. Wally climbed up quickly, "Is everything alright dad?"

"Those… damn… rotten…" Mr. Timbers cursed as his complexion reddened, "The Crane Mercs made off with over twelve billion zeni!"

Erasa gasped while Gohan and Videl clenched their fists. "Just wait til next time…" they both muttered too quietly for anyone else to hear.

The four didn't stay much longer and idly chatted as they walked home. Sharp was feeling pumped still after everything that happened, "This evening sure turned into something exciting huh?"

"No kidding!" Erasa agreed, "Who would have thought that our first big adventure as MASK would turn into all of that?"

Sharp nodded, "I hope all of our investigations can be this much fun!"

With a slight chuckle Erasa added, "So long as Gohan doesn't almost die then I'm up for it!"

Gohan rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously.

"I know!" Sharp exclaimed, "We can start training Gohan in some martial arts, with the way you move I bet you'll pick up on it real quick. And then we won't have to worry about you as much!"

"Uhh… actually…" Gohan started to speak.

"Ahh home!" Erasa stretched then yawned as they approached her walkway, "I guess everything that happened today wore me out more than I thought it would."

"Yeah," Gohan looked away for a moment but then smiled, "You'll sleep well tonight for sure!"

Erasa hugged Gohan and then kissed him on the left cheek causing him to blush, "Thank you for everything today Gohan! I had soo much fun! We have to go on a date again sometime!"

"Uhhhh… date…? Ummm… yeah…" Gohan gulped nervously as a violent tint of red spread over most of his face.

Erasa giggled and waved before skipping off to her front door.

Sharp gave Gohan a funny look as the blush refused to settle off the black haired boy's face. Sharp eventually grinned and slugged Gohan's arm gently, "Night you guys!"

"Night!" Gohan called back.

"Night…" Videl said a little less enthusiastically.

The two stood quietly in front of Sharp and Erasa's house for a few more seconds, "Sooo…" Videl started, "Where do you live exactly Gohan?"

Gohan cleared his throat before answering, "I actually live pretty far from here, I have to commute every day."

Videl still wasn't quite looking at Gohan, "I see, then do you have a ride coming to get you?"

"It'll come down when I call it," Gohan shifted from one foot to the other, "I've got time though so I can walk with you to your house until then."

"I don't need anyone to walk me home," Videl said a little defensively.

"I know," Gohan grinned, "But it would be nice to have someone to talk to on the way there right?"

Videl finally looked up at Gohan's eyes, "I guess you're right."

"So… about The Dragon…" Gohan started getting nervous again.

"He was there tonight," Videl interjected with a bit more excitement than she intended.

"He was…? I mean… I know…" Gohan kept tripping over his words.

"And you know what?" Videl walked a little closer to Gohan.

Gohan gulped, "What?"

"I wouldn't admit this to hardly anyone," Videl stopped walking and made sure she had Gohan's attention to signify the seriousness of what she was about to say, "He's stronger than I am."

"You… you really think so?" Gohan did realize that was a huge admission for Videl.

With a nod Videl started walking again, "You were right with what you said about those guys at the party." Videl's tone became a little somber, "They were definitely highly skilled and very strong. I could just barely keep up with them. I…" the girl sighed, "I couldn't have beaten them on my own. But The Dragon… When he showed up and fought them, as much of a hard time as I had fighting them, they had an even harder time fighting him. He wasn't just slightly above their skill he was way out of their league. I wanted to be upset with him for being that strong when I've trained my whole life to get as strong as I am now, but for some reason when I think about him I can't help but admire him."

The two walked in companionable silence while Gohan thought of something to say, "Videl… You should know that…"

"I know…" Videl interrupted the boy.

"You… wait, what?" Gohan shook his head out of confusion.

"Yeah, the best thing that I can do is follow his example." Videl didn't see Gohan's head cock to the side behind her, "He's proven that it's possible to get that strong, and I intend to match that strength and surpass it!"

"That's not…" Gohan sighed and then smiled, "I'm glad you're looking at it that way, I'm sure if you work hard enough that anything is possible for you."

"Thank you Gohan, that means a lot to me," Videl stopped in front of the gate to her house. "Are you sure you're going to be alright waiting for your ride home? I'd be more than happy to walk you to wherever you're supposed to be picked up from." Videl couldn't help but tease Gohan a little in the way she said it.

Gohan shook his head, "Don't worry, I'm gonna call my ride right now so I'll get picked up nearby."

"Good…" Videl didn't go inside right away. She was looking away again, a slight blush flushed across her cheeks as she seemed to be thinking of something, "And thank you Gohan, for being so sweet and understanding. Before you came around there were all these things I just didn't feel like I could talk to people about, but I know I can talk to you about anything. So… yeah…"

"Anytime Videl," Gohan closed his eyes as he smiled that genuine Son smile, "I mean it! You're one of the most amazing persons I've ever met so whenever you need to talk about anything at all, I promise I'll listen."

Videl suddenly moved in close and kissed Gohan on the right cheek. They both blushed as Videl turned to pass through the gate to her home, "Thank you, have a good night Gohan."

Gohan nodded absently, "Yeah, you too."

Videl walked the rest of the way to her house without looking back. Gohan stood in place shocked until Videl was inside. He put both his hands up to his cheeks and stood with his mouth hanging open for a minute. Finally he realized it was getting late and he ran off in the other direction.

From a tree that overlooked the top of the fence on the Satan property, and large man gripped onto a branch hard enough that it snapped in half, "Just who does that scrawny kid think he is putting the moves on my little princess?! I'll show him! No one weaker than me is gonna date my little girl!" As Mr. Satan motioned violently with his arms, the shifting weight caused the branch he was sitting on to break.

"Nimbus!" Mr. Satan heard the boy shout as he picked himself up off the ground and ran out the gate. Once outside though the street was completely empty.

Mr. Satan growled, "You may have lucked out this time you little punk, but the next time you come around here you better believe that you are in for a Satan style ass whooping!" The man turned and marched back inside.

* * *

><p>End Chapter<p>

What a Casanova, a kiss on both cheeks from different girls! Poor kid is going to have his work cut out sorting all this out in his head.

This was a really long chapter, but I felt it wasn't long enough or with enough of a break to split it into two chapters. The Crane school hasn't been seen in the Dragon Ball world for quite some time so it seemed appropriate to bring in a force to provide some entry level perspective into actual DBZ style martial arts. Hope the fight scene was still interesting despite being pretty one sided. Of course the major events in the story are going to focus on the interaction between Gohan and his friends, so I'm hopeful that those interactions are proving to be at least slightly appealing to read.

Thanks for sticking around for another chapter and please let me know what you think so far!

'Til Next time!


	7. Behind the Curtain

Sorry it's been a few weeks since the last update. Holidays are terrible for me since I end up spending them with family in a small town that only has 56k Internet still. Hopefully we can get back on schedule now though!

Last time on Legend!

Videl showed once again her ability to see through lies by knowing the Timber boys were not being honest to their claim about being The Dragon. When everyone tried to decide how to deal with the Timber boys, the party was attacked. A group of fighters calling themselves the Crane Mercenaries demanded all the guests hand over all their money and belongings. Though Videl put up a good fight, it became obvious that the Crane Mercenaries were much stronger and more trained than even her. Just when things seemed bleak the real Dragon appeared and proved to be far superior to even the Crane Mercs greatest fighter. Using a last ditch maneuver that could have cost Jinx his life, he poured his life energy into a tribeam attack to try and hold Gohan off long enough for everyone to get away. Though the party was crashed Gohan and his friends all admitted they had a good time and their bonds grew took a strong leap forward.

And thank you to all the reviews that were left from the last chapter!

wheathermangohanssj4 - I'm glad you got to enjoy the last chapter!

32nd freeze - You need Mr. Satan to be a dork every now and then just to top things off.

pir84lyf - So violent! Gohan doesn't like hurting people if he doesn't have to. You're probably right though.

Ern Estine 13624 - Thanks!

KiwiS92 - Darn it! It does make a square hole... I got that totally wrong! I'll have to fix that eventually. I'm also looking forward to see how Gohan handles attention though.

anonymous - I didn't make it very clear, but the shift of the rubble was pretty much Gohan crawling out faster than others could notice. Gohan's got game and he probably doesn't even know it. Hercule might make things interesting too.

lazybum131 - Ohhh, I definitely agree here. Gohan wouldn't be taking normal humans seriously which is why I think they'd have a chance at surprising him even if they can't beat him. Unless there is a danger of people getting killed I don't think Gohan would use all his abilities on people. It can do more harm than good to swat a fly with a sledge hammer also. Had the mercs been our trying to murder people rather than just steal from them, I think there would have been a totally different side of Gohan coming out in that fight.

Sharkdude5 - Thank you!

maximusrexmundi - I've been spending some time in the original Dragon Ball and bringing the Crane School in seemed like a good way to challenge characters who are non-god-like-aliens while being able to have some fun with it. I think it can work out and I'm glad you liked it!

duskrider - Gohan harem style... nah.

Penelope - We can't let Gohan have it too easy now can we? XD

Blazingnyancat - Thanks for the reviews! I agree 100%!

Bored123 - I figure the same thing. People get away with way more around Superman who's an even bigger OP mess than Gohan. I will definitely work on keeping things enjoyable though. Thanks!

00gohan123 - Thanks for reading all the way through so far! For the time being I have plenty of stories that I need to finish before I start taking on more projects. I'll eventually get caught up and hopefully by then you'll still have some ideas for me!

Guest - Thanks, I will try!

LegendOfTomorrow - Just a bit maybe... If only Gohan's friends would stop and make things easier for him!

Penelope - Yay Happy Holidays! Hope yours was awesome!

Guest - The easy way out is rarely the most entertaining.

Guest - Super Saiyan under his costume. Nah, I don't think he'd feel there'd be any reason to do that. The whole reason he went super in the beginning was be a little less recognizable. The costume takes care of that now. Tien knew the Tribeam during the time he still knew the Master Chen, I'm willing to take the liberty of Master Chen disseminating the move even if Tien was the one who originated it. I got nothing for three, besides saying I broke cannon... sorry... Fourth though, I don't see why Master Chen's limitations would effect his students. All of Master Roshi's students were much stronger than him even in the beginning of DBZ before the saiyans arrived, I don't see why the Crane school couldn't have found a few exceptionally gifted students who could have surpassed the teachers and had a few surprises up their sleeves. The Tri-beam is definitely a life draining move, which is why Jinx didn't want to use it. So I definitely had to take a few liberties, but as much as I try to reference source material in the things I write, I definitely don't have a problem straying a bit and writing in some differences. I'm not perfect and definitely have screw ups but I hope it doesn't detract too much from the entertainment value. Thanks!

Dyton - Don't give too much of my plot away before I get there XD Thanks for the awesome comments as always! Future interactions between Gohan and the Satans are definitely going to be interesting.

Ethan Demas - Don't know if you'll read this but thanks for the review! It's awesome to have another reader who's come back from ZAT! I still want to get back to expand on that series more eventually. I like where you're going with the Smallville vibe. I never saw much of Smallville, but what I did see I liked. I've also been thinking a lot about commissioning an artist to draw up Gohan in The Dragon suit for me. I should start reaching out to some DeviantArt folks sometime soon.

Thank you all who just come by to read also! I hope I can continue to entertain you all!

Now onto the chapter!

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><p>Chapter 7: Behind the Curtain<p>

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><p>A small metal humming bird fluttered slowly around a near classroom. It made small circles as if it were looking for something. It perked up and flew a few meters in one direction, stopped, made a slight correction and turned towards the back of the room. It flew in close to the Wi-Fi broadcaster and started circling it while chirping.<p>

"I think you did it Erasa!" Erasa and two of her friends looked over the flying device, the more excited one was thin with brown hair, while the third girl had pale blue hair and glasses.

"It would appear your wave length sensor on the Humming Em-Fi Bird is correctly able to decipher the direction in which wireless signals are emanating," The blue haired girl gave the impression that she didn't show much more emotion than she already was.

Erasa pulled the two girls into a group hug, "Haruhi, Tabatha, Thank you! I couldn't have done it without your help!"

The quickly beating wing of the little bird suddenly seized and it immediately fell to the floor like a rock where it convulsed due to the stuck gyro.

"Oh no!" Erasa quickly pulled out her controller and turned the small robot off to save it from further damage.

Tabatha leaned over and picked up the device, "It appears we may be fortunate that only the mechanical components have taken damage."

"That's a relief," Haruhi sighed, "Then I'll go grab us another servo to replace that one with."

Erasa pulled out a screw driver and grinned, "Thanks Haruhi, can you see if there are any titanium ones in this size? I think I can get more power out of the motor if weight becomes an issue."

"Sure!" Haruhi set off down the hall of the science wing. The school was mostly desolate on this Saturday morning. There was no one else in the wing of the school as Haruhi walked through which left things far more quiet than normal.

The engineering instructor had trusted the girls with the keys to the lab and supply closet so Haruhi was used to making use of the spare robotics parts on the weekend. What she wasn't used to was the sudden sound of shuffling and scratching coming from behind her after she opened the closet.

Haruhi gulped and slowly turned around. The hall was still dark and empty, nothing looked out of place, "Hello?" she called but got no response, "Is anyone there?"

Silence was all that reached Haruhi's ears for a few moments. Deciding she was being paranoid, Haruhi returned her focus on rummaging through the closet of parts.

Most of the parts were widely disorganized as many middle school students tended to just throw parts into random boxes, "The servos _were_ in this box… where did they…" The shuffling sound started up again from behind Haruhi causing her to stop and listen. There was no mistaking it, something was definitely behind her.

Deciding she wasn't about to let this eat at her, Haruhi took a few breaths before turning around quickly. She came face to face with a reptilian face of something like a dinosaur.

In the classroom, Erasa and Tabatha heard a loud scream from down the hall, "Haruhi?" Erasa quickly put the bird down and ran out of the room with Tabatha close behind her. The two girls turned the last corner to where the supply closet was and saw what looked to be a six foot tall pterodactyl standing in the doorway to the closet.

Erasa's eyes widened, "Oh my gosh!" The pterodactyl turned and looked right at her. From over a wing she was able to make out Haruhi's unconscious form in the closet. Erasa reached down to a pocket near the ankle of her pants and pulled out a metal rod which extended and then sparked at the tip, "Get away from her!"

The pterodactyl didn't make any moves, so Erasa jumped forward and jabbed at it with her stun baton. Contact with the dinosaur sent a shock through its body and caused it to shriek loudly. It quickly shrugged off the voltage and then stared the girls down angrily.

Tabatha fixed her glasses, "That may have been unwise…" she then turned to run.

Erasa shrieked as the pterodactyl snapped at her and then ran after Tabatha with the pterodactyl close behind.

The two girls slid around the corner, running as fast as they could through the school halls. The Pterodactyl being bigger and not airborne was slightly awkward on the ground and bounced off the lockers on the wall before turning and continuing chase.

A large set of security doors separating the science wing from the rest of the school was only a few hundred feet ahead. The girls instinctively knew if they could just get to that door before the dinosaur they may be able to seal it shut behind them.

Before they could reach the door it burst open. The girls slid to the ground, their eyes wide in shock as purple winged dragon ran into the hall from doors. The lithe dragon had to be at least three feet longer than the pterodactyl, and its wingspan took up nearly the entire width of the hallway. Their heart beats echoed through their ears as the beast charged in their direction and then jumped right over their heads. It let out a growl as it pounced the pterodactyl to the ground.

The girls watched in near disbelief as the pterodactyl and winged dragon squared off in the science wing of their school.

"Down Icarus!" turning back toward the door the girls saw the hero they knew as The Dragon run in and jump between the two monster like creatures. The winged dragon immediately heeled, but the pterodactyl screeched loudly still looking angry until The Dragon thumped it on the head, "NO! Bad Toh Toh!"

The pterodactyl whimpered but visibly calmed, "That's a good boy," The Dragon soothed the young dinosaur, "Now why are you all causing such a ruckus?"

"Umm… Mr. Dragon?" Erasa stood back up and cautiously approached the scene.

"Oh hi Era…errr… I've… umm… seen you before right?" The Dragon stumbled.

Erasa nodded, "Yes! I was at the Timber's party last week when the Crane Mercenaries robbed the place."

"That must be it!" The Dragon grinned.

"It's so awesome that you remembered me!" Erasa felt secure in the knowledge that The Dragon had the situation under control and took a few steps closer. She peered at The Dragon's eyes through the red scouter visor and then looked over the rest of the suit, paying close attention to the skin tight bits.

The Dragon tried not to blush under the obvious scrutiny, then quickly regained his composure, "Are you two alright?"

Erasa suddenly remembered Haruhi, "We're fine, but our friend Haruhi might be hurt!" She took off running down the hall.

The Dragon watched Erasa and Tabatha run down the hall, "Icarus, make sure Toh Toh stays put!" The winged dragon nodded to his friend as The Dragon ran after the girls.

Erasa made her way back to the supply closet and found Haruhi still out cold. She immediately placed two fingers to her throat and felt for a pulse. She then checked for any signs of injuries. Once she was satisfied she sighed in relief, "Looks like she just fainted, I don't see anything wrong with her."

"Glad to hear!" The Dragon also looked genuinely relieved.

Erasa tilted her head at the young hero, "Have you always had a pet dragon? Or is that why you call yourself The Dragon?"

"He's not really a pet," The Dragon chuckled, "We have been friends for years though."

"I see," Erasa grinned, "It seems to be that you're also familiar with that dinosaur."

"Yeah…" The Dragon shuffled slightly, "Toh Toh is part of a family of pterodactyls that I'm familiar with, they wouldn't normally be aggressive at all, and I've never seen them leave their territory before. This morning I was really surprised to see their whole nest was empty. That's why I'm having Icarus help me track them."

Erasa thought on these details for a moment, "Is their nest around here?"

The Dragon shook his head, "No, it's actually a bit of a distance for them to fly. And Toh Toh might not look it but he's actually one of the younger pterodactyls, so it's really odd that he'd be out here on his own. I'm actually really worried about what this means."

Still plugging pieces together Erasa asked, "Are they dangerous?"

The Dragon shook his head, "Unless they're competing for food, these pterodactyls are normally pretty docile, and there's no shortage of food in the area they live…"

"So that means they must have a really good reason for coming all this way," Erasa deduced.

The Dragon nodded in agreement, "That makes sense… But what…?"

"What's more important to them than food?" Erasa said off the top of her head.

The Dragon shrugged, "Good question."

Haruhi began to groan and stir as she woke back up. Her eyes opened and immediately took notice of The Dragon, "Oh wow…"

"Glad you're alright," The Dragon smiled to the young girl, "I need to find the rest of the pterodactyls now, sorry you guys got caught up in that."

Erasa held her hand out, "Wait, is there anything we can help you with?"

The Dragon stopped and looked at Erasa for a moment, "Well…" The Dragon messed with his radio receiver for a moment looking for an unused frequency, "Do you have an adjustable radio transmitter?"

Erasa grinned, "Are you kidding? I made one of those in kindergarten!"

"Great!" The Dragon grinned, "Then don't put yourself in any danger, but if you happen to see anymore dinosaurs, call it out on 297.3 Megahertz and I'll hear it."

Erasa pulled out her custom Sat-Tab device, "Ohh… I have The Dragon's number! I bet not many girls can say that!"

The Dragon blushed again, "I suppose not."

Erasa leaned in, "Thanks for your help hero," she kissed The Dragon on the cheek enjoying herself as she watched the blush deepen even further, "You better get to work I suppose though."

"Yeah… Work… On it!" The Dragon turned and ran back down the hall.

Erasa turned and winked at Haruhi, "He's cute huh?"

Haruhi blushed slightly and nodded. Tabatha shrugged and didn't seem too interested one way or the other.

Erasa grinned more confidently, "So are either of you interested in looking for more dinosaurs?"

Several blocks away, a sparring match was taking place at a local dojo. Sharp wore his sandan black belt uniform as he squared off against an opponent at least twice his age.

"Do it Sharp!" A few other boys Sharp's age silently cheered for him, though quietly as they kneeled at the edge of the ring.

The man opposite to Sharp grunted and charged at the boy. The man looked as though he was going to punch with his left, but switched off at the last moment and kicked high from the right. Sharp still easily ducked out of the way, and then continued to block the next attacks.

With a grunt of frustration the man charged forward and kicked forward. Sharp caught the man's foot in front of him, "Sensei, no offense but this is too easy." Sharp threw the man's leg forward knocking him off balance and backwards to the floor. Sharp's grin spoke volumes of confidence as he turned to his teacher and bowed, "Master Kenshiro, I request an additional challenge, please allow me to spar with three challengers at once."

The man acknowledged Sharp's skill though was still slightly skeptical. He didn't want to see any of his pupils get hurt under his watch, "I'll allow it…" He pointed to two more of the adult students, "Lee, Jacky, please accept Sharp's challenge."

The other two black belts nodded and joined their other comrade on the floor. The boys who had been rooting for Sharp watched intently as the four participants bowed to each other in respect before they began. Sharp lowered his stance as his surrounding opponents charged in from different directions.

Sharp blocked the first kick from his left then, being short, was easily able to slide under the punch from in front of him and managed to double tap the fighter's chest, knocking him back. Before the fighter on his right could land a punch, Sharp connected his elbow to the man's fist then dropped down into a leg sweep to kick him off balance. He kept the spinning momentum going as he rose up and delivered a roundhouse to the man who had started on his left.

"Very good, you're well on your way to yondan rank if you keep up your training with the level of tenacity you've shown so far," Sensei Kenshiro praised.

"Thank you Sensei!" Sharp bowed.

"And the rest of you would do well to take after Sharp's example. The life of a martial artist is not a once a week hobby, it is a consistent pursuit of self-improvement and enlightenment. Practice hard and daily and you will see results. Today's class has ended." All of the students bowed to the sensei before leaving.

The two boys who had been cheering Sharp on caught up to him. The blue haired one excitedly spat off, "Did you hear that Sharp! Yondan! And aren't you already the youngest sandan in the city?"

Sharp shrugged, "I was tied with Videl for that title, but now that her training involves actually crime fighting I wouldn't be surprised if her rank is closer to the equivalent of a kyuudan."

A muscular dark haired boy grinned in thought, "Dude, you just took on three trained adults at once, so why don't you take on some crime also?"

"I don't know Romeo," Sharp sounded interested but unsure, "I mean, I can hold my own against anyone in a fair fight sure, but bad guys don't exactly fight fair."

The blue haired boy thought about it, "…I guess that would be dangerous."

"Way to be a downer Simon!" Romeo was feeling pumped thinking about it.

The three boys left the dojo and started walking down the street.

"If something happened like right in front of me…" Sharp spoke out loud, "I'd have no reason not to do something about it."

Romeo grinned, "Yeah, if something happened right now, right here, we'd all do something about it, right?!"

Sharp grinned, "Definitely!"

Simon looked nervous but smiled anyway, "Yeah, I'd definitely help!"

The sound of a shrill scream nearby punctuated the moment and startled all three boys as they looked down the road.

Sharp gulped, but decided he had been serious on what he had just said and ran off to take a look. Romeo looked a little shocked for a moment but quickly shook it off and grinned at Simon, "No wussing out now, come on!"

The three boys turned the corner and slid to a stop. Ahead in the middle of a patio restaurant was what appeared to be a nine foot tall dinosaur sniffing at the frantic patrons.

Sharp didn't waste any more time before jumping over the divider line for the restaurant and helping people to their feet.

A woman near the towering pterodactyl was sprawled on the floor, quivering at the sight of the giant. Sharp pulled her away hoping to snap her back to her senses as well, "It just landed on top of us, out of nowhere!"

Romeo and Simon followed Sharp's lead and started ushering people away from the animal. So far the large flying dinosaur had only looked from side to side and sniffed at everything. It made no move to chase anyone.

"Everyone just back away, don't provoke it…" Sharp shouted in as calm a tone as he could muster.

The people fleeing onto the streets drew the attention of local law enforcement and a police car soon swerved onto the street in front of the restaurant, tires squealing. The car got the pterodactyl's attention and the police officers jumped out of the car with their weapons drawn. One of the officers grabbed his radio, "Code 8, we're going to need backup on Brach's Avenue south of Spangler street!" Their faces showed obvious signs of panic as the kept aim on the creature.

"Wait! It hasn't hurt anyone, just calm down a sec!" Sharp tried to reason with the police.

The pterodactyl eyed the police carefully, mostly likely annoyed by the noise the vehicle had made on approach.

The officers waved their guns at the dinosaur as if trying to shoo it away, "Back, back!"

Romeo ran over the squad car, "You guys are going to piss it off, just leave it alone for a sec and…"

Fascinated by the officer's antics, the pterodactyl started moving closer them. It looked between the two officers then lurched back and let out a high pitched caw.

The second officer screamed as he pulled the trigger of his weapon, grazing the giant pterodactyl's wing.

"Uhoh…" Sharp watched as the pterodactyl howled louder then ran at the cop car at full speed. The pterodactyl leaned forward to peck at the officer who shot at it but Romeo managed to push the cop out of the way.

The dinosaur's momentum carried it forward and it flapped its wings taking lift and managed to snag Romeo in its talon as it took the sky, "Heeeyy!"

"Get back here!" Sharp ran up the front of the squad car and jumped at the pterodactyl barely catching its tail as it took the sky. Within moments they were at the building line and soaring higher, "This wasn't exactly a smart idea…"

Sharp pulled himself up the dinosaur's back, "Romeo?! Are you alright?"

Romeo didn't really stop screaming as he shouted, "NO! I'M GONNA FALL, THEN I'M GONNA DIE!"

"Just hold on!" Sharp continued climbing up the pterodactyl's back.

"TO WHAT?!" Romeo tried not to fidget but his instincts demanded he find something to grab onto and take some control of the situation.

The cars in the city below looked like ants busying around a mound of dirt from as high as they were. The high velocity made it hard to breathe, and the altitude was making it cold.

Sharp wrapped his arms around the pterodactyl's neck, "Come on boy, take us back down!"

The dinosaur let out another high pitched shriek after being grabbed and then rolled through the sky onto its back. Sharp held on only with his hands as the rest of his body dangled after losing his platform, "I really wish I could fly right about now!"

The pterodactyl rolled over again, and Sharp found himself sliding over to the dinosaur's underside, "I can't hold on!"

"NO DON'T FALL!" Romeo shouted, still in a panic.

Sharp noticed the pterodactyl was making some interesting contraction moves as if curling up and then flexing rapidly. He was wondering what it was doing until Romeo was thrown into him, knocking them both off.

"AHHHHH!" The boy's screamed as they fell through the open sky.

An airplane was approaching its landing at the Satan City airport when a little girl looked out the window and saw two panicked stricken young boys fall past it just about ten meters off.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Romeo shouted.

"SHUT UP!" Sharp shouted back.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Romeo shouted again.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Sharp grit his teeth as they approached the sky scrapers.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? OOOF!" Romeo and Sharp found themselves on the back of another scaly creature.

"It looks like a dragon…" Sharp answered a little more calmly.

"Nice catch Icarus!" The Dragon flew in beside Icarus and the boys.

"OH wow, it's The Dragon!" Romeo called out looking very impressed, "I didn't know he actually had a dragon."

"What were you guys doing up there?" The Dragon asked the two.

Sharp pointed up, "That pterodactyl took us for a ride."

"Oh there's Chacha!" The Dragon looked around at the surroundings, "Icarus, can you take them down to that building and I'll be right there!"

Icarus chortled approvingly and flew down to the skyscraper. Once Icarus landed, Romeo immediately jumped off and nearly collapsed on the roof.

"Are you okay dude?" Sharp asked sounding concerned as he climbed down. He noticed Romeo wasn't looking well.

Romeo shook his head, "I think I lost my lunch up there…"

"Oh…" Sharp tilted his head noticing that Romeo did look a little messy.

The Dragon flew back down holding the pterodactyl by some apparent scruff behind its neck, "Are you two alright?"

Sharp nodded, "We're cool, I think it was a bit of a wild ride for Romeo though.

"Shut up!" Romeo still looked a little blue in the face, "You know I just get motion sickness…"

The Dragon looked Romeo over, "Yeah, you'll be alright, so thanks for point this one out. By chance have you seen any more of these guys? I'm still missing four of them."

"How do you lose a bunch of dinosaurs?" Sharp asked incredulously.

The Dragon rubbed the back of his helmet, "I just happened to notice today that their nest was empty, it's really odd for all of them to be away so I thought I better look for them. Figures they'd be here in town."

"They can't be too hard to find if they're that big," Sharp pointed out, "just follow the screams, people around here tend to freak out when they see something like that."

"True, but this city is so big, there are a lot of places they can hide," The Dragon said as he looked over the side of the building.

Sharp thought for a moment, "Well… until I grabbed onto its tail and got dragged friggin high into the sky, I think we had the situation under control. We could help you look in the area?"

The Dragon grinned, "That would be awesome actually! I'll head out to another area and if you happen to find another pterodactyl roaming around just call it in to your sister."

Sharp's eyes widened, "You know my sister?!"

The Dragon sighed, "Umm… Well you see, I saw the two of you at the Timber's residence last week when it was robbed, then your sister found one of these pterodactyls earlier today. So she has the radio frequency I'm monitoring to call out dinosaur sightings to."

Sharp nodded seeming to accept the explanation, "Oh alright…"

The Dragon patted Icarus gently, "Go ahead and climb back onto Icarus and he'll take you down to the ground. I'll make sure Chacha makes it out of the city safely."

"I don't wanna fly again…" Romeo's cheeks bulged as he thought about it.

The Dragon laughed a bit, "Don't worry, this time will be a lot gentler, right Icarus?" The purple winged dragon gave out a chortled mewl of approval. "Catch you guys some other time!" The Dragon threw a peace sign then grabbed the pterodactyl again from behind its neck and flew off.

The other two boys climbed onto Icarus's back and the winged dragon flapped twice before leaping from the roof of the building. Romeo held on tight and squeezed his eyes shut until Icarus flapped his wings hard again to halt their descent and then softly landed.

"Wow, that was cool! Thanks Icarus!" Sharp petted Icarus in the same manner he saw The Dragon earlier over his maw. Icarus made another mewl sound then flapped his mighty wings which blew an unexpectedly strong gust of wind across the street. Icarus then took off at speed presumably to chase after The Dragon and pterodactyl.

Sharp watched Icarus fly away, "I wish I had my own Dragon."

"Not me…" Romeo sat down on the sidewalk to collect himself.

"Yeah well…" Sharp lost sight of Icarus as he flew around the buildings, "Riding a flying dragon like that has got to be the next best thing to being able to fly yourself."

"You keep dream about stuff like that," Romeo finally started looking better, "the rest of us mortals will keep to the ground thank you very much."

Sharp held a hand down to Romeo, "Come on, we need to go let Simon know we're not dead."

"Oh yeah!" Romeo took the hand and hauled himself up. The two then went running down the street to where they left their friend.

As the two ran by a small hospital they didn't realize they had been recognized from across the street. Videl crossed the road approaching the medical plaza and was tempted to call out to her friends, but decided against it as she had some important business to attend to.

The automatic door slid open as Videl approached and she walked over to the information desk. The woman behind the desk looked up at the young girl, "Good afternoon, can I help you?"

"I need to speak with whoever is in charge of making medical purchases," Videl stated very seriously.

The woman looked Videl over, "Aren't you a little young to be making sales calls?"

Videl shook her head, "I'm not here to sell anything, I'm following up on a lead to a criminal investigation and I would appreciate your cooperation."

After a few moments of disbelief the woman's eyes widened, "You… wouldn't be that daughter of Mr. Satan would you?"

"I am Videl Satan," other people walking by all stopped and stared for a moment wondering what was going on.

The woman gulped before pressing a button on her desk, "I'll buzz you through."

"Thank you," Videl grinned confidently and walked through the doors to the admin area.

Like any hospital there were quite a few corridors, but Videl found the office of the person she was looking for and didn't bother knocking before throwing the door open, "Are you the one responsible for purchasing medical equipment for this hospital?"

The startled man wheeled around in his chair, "I am, you must be Miss Satan?"

Videl nodded and held out a receipt, "I need information on this purchase."

The man carefully reached over and took a look at the printout, "This wasn't paid for using one of our hospital accounts. And manufacturing equipment? These receipts are for machines that make circuit boards, energy conduits, and synthetic limbs? "

"True, the purchase wasn't made using a hospital credit account," Videl pointed to another line on the receipt, "But the items were delivered here."

"I see…" The man scrutinized the paper further, "Hmmm, I think I recognize this signature, I think that belongs to a Dr. Oreo. He's the assistant to a senior doctor here, Dr. Purrin."

"Dr. Oreo and Dr. Purrin huh?" Videl took the receipt back, "Where can I find these two?"

"Dr. Purrin's lab is on the fourth floor." The man looked down nervously for a moment but finally asked, "Is something going on with him?"

Videl eyed the man cautiously, "The serial numbers on some of the cash that was used to purchase this equipment was a match for some of the money that was stolen last week from the Timber's charity ball."

"Oh… dear…" The man stayed quiet as Videl left to take an elevator up. Immediately Videl began to regret not taking the stairs, the elevator moved slowly, and the music was an annoying jingle that made her think of a robot cat for some reason.

Once on the fourth floor it was only another hallway down to Dr. Purrin's lab. She pushed on the door and didn't know why it surprised her to find it locked. She knocked on the door four times until she heard footsteps approaching.

The door didn't open, but a void from the other side shouted, "What do you want?"

"I need to speak with Dr. Oreo and Dr. Purrin," Videl announced.

There was silence on the other side of the door for a few seconds, "Why?"

Videl sighed and slapped her forehead, "So I can give them girl scout cookies?"

"Oh okay, come on in then!" The door opened and a short man with frazzled hair, one large eye, and a hunched over stance stood on the other side, "Hey, you don't have cookies."

"Yeah, I didn't think that would actually make you open the door," Videl pushed her way inside and took a look at the lab.

The strange looking man quickly waddled into Videl's path, "Wait! You can't just barge in here!"

Videl crossed her arms, "Then let me speak with Dr. Oreo or Dr. Purrin and I'll be on my way."

"Ah, but you see, that is simple!" The held out his arms in a wide expression, "I am Dr. Oreo! So now you've spoken with me, please leave."

"Not so fast," Videl didn't budge as the man tried to usher her back out the door, "I have some serious questions I need to ask you regarding a recent crime."

Dr. Oreo shook his head, "If you want to report a crime the police station is down the street, we're doctors not myth busters."

"I'm doing the investigating here so consider the police notified!" Videl was starting to lose her temper.

The doctor scratched his head, "And just who are you?"

"Videl Satan," she stated proudly.

"Who?"

Videl's eye twitched a bit, "Videl Satan, daughter of Mr. Hercule Satan."

"Who?"

Videl's posture sank a bit, "Hercule Satan? The man who saved the world from Cell?"

"From a what? That doesn't sound impressive at all… you might as well say he survived the flu."

Videl started turning red, "Have you been living under a rock for the last three years?!"

"Of course I haven't!" the doctor exclaimed looking insulted, "Though I must say even a rock would be more than enough to kill a cell."

With her fist shaking Videl tried to calm herself down before she decked the man, "Okay… let's start this over shall we… I HAVE QUESTIONS, YOU HAVE ANSWERS, THERE WILL BE AN EXCHANGE OR I SWEAR THAT BIG EYE OF YOURS WILL BE SWOLLEN SHUT FOR A MONTH!"

"How rude!" Dr. Oreo huffed, "First you lie about cookies, and then you make fun of my appearance? Doctors are people too you know, we have feelings!"

With another deep sigh Videl walked up to the man, "Okay, I'm sorry, look!" She pulled out the receipt she had shown the previous person, "This order was placed for the equipment I'm assuming is some of these machines here in this lab right now. I need to know where the money that was used to buy it came from, "Videl held out a hand and tried explaining it again slower, "Like the actual dollar bills… Where… did you… get… the bills… that were used… to buy… those machines?"

"Where did we get the bills that were used to buy something?" Dr. Oreo laughed, "Do you remember where you got the five that's in your pocket right now?"

Videl felt in her pocket, "How did you know I had a five in my pocket?"

"You do?!" Dr. Oreo looked excited.

"Never mind," Videl rubbed the temples of her head, "Just, please, do you remember anything about where the cash came from?"

"Let me think…" Dr. Oreo walked across the lab, "I remember placing this order, I had already paid rent, so I probably didn't get the money from the bank. I did stop to get a coffee that morning and got a twenty zeni cashback with my purchase, but that couldn't have done it… Think… Think…"

Videl was almost ready to just give up on the entire thing. She watched as Dr. Oreo paced in front of a window, the light shining in through the window appeared to be dimming, "Oh I know!" The room was noticeably darkening from the lack of light shining through the glass, "I can't believe I had such a hard time remembering!" Videl looked up and noticed something was approaching the window, "It was given to me!" Something big was approaching the window fast, "In order to buy the parts we needed it was given to me by Dr. Pu…" Dr. Oreo was cut off by the window shattering behind him.

Videl dashed forward and shoved Dr. Oreo out of the way as the enormous head of a pterodactyl, large enough to swallow Dr. Oreo whole, crashed through the lab window and started cawing in a monstrously loud tone.

Videl opened her eyes and it looked as though several more pterodactyls were all circling in the sky above the hospital.

Outside the hospital Sharp, Romeo, and Simon stared at the gigantic dinosaur birds circling overhead.

Romeo pointed at the lot of them, "How big was the one that carried us off?"

Simon gulped, "Less than half the size of just that one there."

Sharp nodded, "Yeah… I think we need The Dragon to come back!" He called up Erasa on his phone, "Pterodacyls! At Hospital! Call Dragon! HURRY!" he hung up before she could ask any questions.

Haruhi noticed the odd look on Erasa's face, "Your brother?"

"Yup…" Erasa activated her radio broadcast app.

Haruhi saw the Erasa punching in 297.3, "He found some pterodactyls?"

"Sounds like it," Erasa confirmed.

"I wonder how he knew Erasa could radio for The Dragon…" Haruhi wondered out loud.

"Long day…" Tabatha murmured without looking up from her engineering manual.

At the hospital Dr. Oreo scrambled to his feet and ran across the lab, "Ohhhh! This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!"

Videl stood in front of the pterodactyl as it started to crawl its way through the large window, tearing out chunks of wall as it moved.

Dr. Oreo paced in front one of their machines, "Ohhh… What would Dr. Purring do… It's not ready, but we have no choice, but it's not ready, BUT WE HAVE NO CHOICE!" He pressed a button on the side of a strange capsule, "Android A, activate!"

"What?" Videl turned around as the capsule hissed open lights turned on surrounding a large bulky body with scaly skin, "An…droid?"

The pterodactyl continued cawing and roaring as it clawed its way deeper into the lab. The strange mechanical person Dr. Oreo was standing by though began to twitch. After several moments, the eyes opened.

"Yes! It works!" Dr. Oreo shouted victoriously, "Now Android A, do something about… whatever that monstrous thing is!"

The android began stepping forward, slowly walking across the lab. In several long strides it was standing in front of Videl, "That one too, but the other monstrous thing first!"

The android turned to look at the pterodactyl and walked towards it. The dinosaur wasn't paying it much heed when it put its hands with talons in place of fingers against the pterodactyl's face, and with a great heave managed to shove the pterodactyl completely out of the building.

All the pterodactyls flying over the hospital began to look frantic as they gained speed in their circles around the building.

"Yes, they're all here!" The Dragon approached from the east and looked relieved to see all of the remaining dinosaurs he had been searching for. As The Dragon approached though none of the pterodactyl's showed any sign of noticing him, "The heck, Shiloh! Marley! Lassie! What's going on?!"

Videl watched through the hole in the wall as The Dragon neared the pterodactyls. She was about to call out to him when she was suddenly lifted off the ground by the back of her shirt. With an angry expression on her face she swung around and kicked at the android holding her up. The kick made little more than a clank sound and left no other sign of impact.

The Android turned to Dr. Oreo as if awaiting a command, "Ehhhh…" Dr. Oreo hummed, "Yeah, just get rid of her."

Videl had no time to react as the android turned to the window and tossed her out from it. Videl screamed as she fell from over sixty feet in the air.

The Dragon heard the scream and immediately his ki flared brightly as he flew in that direction. Videl was caught in The Dragon's arms just feet above the street. She was placed gently on her feet, "Are you alright?"

Videl nodded profusely, though her pulse was still high from the anxiety rush, "I'm fine, I was just caught off guard when that behemoth up there tossed me out the building."

The Dragon grit his teeth, "He just threw you from that window?"

"Yeah," Videl made sure to spot where the pterodactyls were as well, "Right after he even through that dinosaur out."

The Dragon nodded, "I better have a bit of a talk with him then…"

The Dragon slowly floated up to the fourth floor of the hospital where the scale skinned man was still standing.

"Be careful!" Videl shouted from below, "The doctor up there called him an android or something like that!"

The Dragon immediately turned to look at Videl, "Did you say an android?!"

Android A took a leap from the side of the building without warning. The Dragon turned around again as the Android's elbow connected with his head and drove him into the ground.

Sharp and his friends nearly lost their balance as the street quaked and cracked from where The Dragon was driven into it.

Android A pulled The Dragon back up from the crater they had just made, holding the boy by his throat while he began to punch him repeatedly in the face. The Dragon's eyes snapped open and with his hands against the android's torso he blasted the mechanoid man back.

"Definitely reminds me of an android," The Dragon rubbed the back of his glove against his lip, "It's like he doesn't exist to my senses… I can't tell how strong he is…"

The android flinched as it began to stand. The Dragon yelled as he powered up, a powerful aura built up around him taking the shape of a dragon before he flew forward with his fist outstretched. When his punch made contact with the android he tore through it much easier than expected and tumbled to a halt before the nuts, bolts, and android goop caught up to him from behind.

Everyone in the area watched horrified as nearly half of the android was ripped apart by the last punch. It tumbled to the ground and convulsed for a moment before several bolts of energy built up around it and at last it exploded.

The Dragon walked over to what remained of the android, but little was recognizable beyond melted slag.

"Not a strong android… but that really did seem like an android…" The Dragon kicked at the charred hunk of mass for good measure and walked back to Videl.

"Are you okay?" Genuine concern apparent on Videl's face.

"Don't worry about me," The Dragon resumed a confident posture, "It'll take a lot more than a robot to get to me!"

"Good," Videl smiled as Sharp, Erasa, and their friends ran up.

"That was amazing!" "Way to go Dragon!" "You showed that rust bucket who's boss!" cried out from the small crowd.

The Dragon noticed the pterodactyls were still circling overhead, "I'll be right back."

The Dragon floated into the lab on the side of the hospital. The lab looked dark and empty. A grunting and scratching noise coming from the far end of the lab got his attention. A smaller pterodactyl was at the back scratching at a cabinet, "Hey there Benji, what do you want so bad from in there?"

Benji the pterodactyl only whined as The Dragon opened the cabinet. His eyes widened as he reached in and pulled out several pterodactyl eggs, "Have you guys been searching all over the city for these?"

Benji whined again as he rubbed his face against an egg. The Dragon checked again inside the cabinet and found another egg, this one with a syringe sticking through the shell, "What was going on here?"

The Dragon gulped as he removed the syringe from the egg, the hole miniscule enough that it almost completely sealed on its own. With the eggs under his arms, The Dragon whistled to Benji, "Come on, let's get out of here!"

Videl and the others watched as The Dragon flew out from the hospital with the pterodactyl eggs and immediately the dinosaurs in the sky settled and began to calmly follow the young hero.

"Thanks for your help you guys," The Dragon bowed courteously to the others and even the dinosaurs seemed to try and mimic him.

"It makes so much sense now knowing that they were after their eggs, they're one big family!" Erasa cooed seeing the large eggs The Dragon was holding.

"Just glad we could help!" Sharp stated enthusiastically.

The only one with a serious look, Videl asked, "Was there anyone still in the lab?" She sighed as The Dragon shook his head, "The doctors in that lab were my lead to follow the money that was stolen last week."

"By the Crane Mercs?!" The Dragon as well as the others took a step back in shock.

Videl nodded, "Those doctors used the money to buy a lot of strange equipment. Maybe it had something to do with this android thing…"

The Dragon bit his lip, "We'll have to be careful." The cawing noise behind him reminded him he wasn't done yet, "Thanks for everything today, your help made this go faster, now I have to get these guys home." He floated a few feet off the ground and waved as best he could while still holding four big eggs.

"When will we see you again?" Erasa shouted.

"Sooner than you think!" The Dragon called back before flying away, Icarus and the pterodactyl's right behind him.

"How can he say that like it's a fact?" Videl asked herself.

The group hung out for a little while longer all reminiscing together about their various encounters with the dinosaurs and The Dragon. Many stories became quite a bit more exaggerated than what had actually happened, but everyone felt a like they had accomplished something important.

Evening rolled around at the Satan house. A glow through the living room window indicated something on TV.

"Ha! You know that one there where he grows really big? Well that's not even him, that's an advanced holographic projector making it look like he's grown fifty feet tall while the real guy stands behind that curtain over there in front of a camera!" Mr. Hercule Satan explained as he watched some old martial arts footage.

"Wow it didn't take you long to spot that one at all, huh Mr. Satan?" The audience Mr. Satan was explaining this to just so happened to be two pretty young women in their mid-twenties.

The second girl looked more interested in the fight, "If that's a hologram, then how is he leaving those giant foot prints?"

"Oh, well, that's the easy part!" Hercule scrambled to come up with an excuse off the top of his head, "They had to be dug out long before hand and then weak supports would hold up a fake floor. This way when the hologram stepped over the right spot they'd use a small explosive to destroy the support and collapse the ground in to look like a footprint!"

"That's amazing!" the ditsier girl cheered.

"That's still a lot of dedication to the art that someone would have to have to set the whole thing up in advance," the second girl watched the fight a little more closely.

"In my book, a cheater is a cheater is a cheater!" Hercule boasted before laughing loudly.

The door chime went off indicating someone entered the house, "Are you in there dad?" Videl called as she opened the door to the den, "Oh, hi Shiemi, hi Misuzu."

The blond girl, Shiemi, bowed, "Hi Videl, we were just taking a break while your dad was watching these videos, I better get back to work!" She pulled out a feather duster and went back to cleaning the room.

Videl looked over her dad's shoulder at the TV, "What are you watching?"

"Oh this?" Hercule paused the video, "This is the footage from the World Martial Arts Tournament that happened right before you were born, the story is that huge green guy was the reincarnation of the Evil King Piccolo, We know it was about twenty years ago that King Piccolo overthrew King Furry for a short time and really screwed some things up releasing dangerous criminals and threatening to destroy every city on the planet. Supposedly he even almost brought the world to extinction a few hundred years ago. This guppy though showed up and claimed to be either the reincarnation of Piccolo or the son of Piccolo or something like that. Some people said he would have destroyed the world had he won the twenty third World Martial Arts Tournament." Mr. Satan started laughing, "Good thing that's all just a bunch of hogwash nonsense!"

"So he didn't win the tournament?" Videl asked curiously.

"Nope," Mr. Satan pressed play on the video, "The winner was this scrawny punk, some seventeen year old trickster named Son Goku."

"Son?" Videl stared at the image of a young Goku on the screen for a minute, "That's… He looks a lot like…" Videl's eyes widened, "It couldn't be…"

Mr. Satan turned and to see his daughter hurriedly leaving the room, "Everything alright pumpkin?"

"It's fine!" Videl hurried up to her room and shut the door. After powering on her computer she pulled out her phone and hit contacts, "Hey Erasa it's me. Yeah, fine, listen. I need your help with something. I need you to help me look up anything you can find on Son Goku…"

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><p>End Chapter<p>

Are things being pieced together behind our heroes back? How much will Gohan's friends be able to decipher? Tune in next week for another chapter of Legend - School Daze!

Thanks again for reading through this chapter. I had the desire to focus a little more on Gohan's friends and give them some spotlight time and show how exceptional they all can be when not overshadowed by one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy. Hopefully the subplot and minor characters proved to be entertaining.

Please let me know what you thought and come back soon for the next chapter!


	8. By Invitation Only

Last time on Legend: School DAZE

Erasa was working on her robot bird, giving it the ability to detect wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum when she encountered a dinosaur! She and her friends were chased through the school when they were saved not just by a dragon but The Dragon as well. Sharp found himself in trouble when he clung onto a pterodactyl's tail and ended up being dragged high into the sky. He may have plummeted to his death except he was saved by a dragon who was in the company of The Dragon. Videl was then following up on a lead from the Timber's incident when she met a strange doctor who was apprehensive to answer her questions. Before she could decipher any major clues, the largest dinosaur yet attacked the lab. The doctor then activated a mysterious Android "A" who pushed back the dinosaur and tossed Videl out the window. Videl was saved by The Dragon who proceeded to destroy the weak android with ease. Without being aware of the situation though, Dr. Oreo made his escape but was forced to leave behind the dinosaur eggs which was the cause of the dinosaur's scouring through the city in the first place. Strange happenings are going on in the background, and Videl may have inadvertently made a discovery about Gohan's background thanks to her father. What will she do with this information? Find out today on Dragon Ball Legend!

Once again you guys, thank you so much for all the feedback you've left my story! It's so awesome to hear from each of you every time.

Lightningblade49 – Without Dr. Gero it seems unlikely that androids could be made to the same quality. At least right away… who knows what the future of android technology holds?

Ern Estine 13624 – So glad you're still enjoying it! Thanks!

StammRoar – I try to put some twists on the story. It's really hard to strike the right balance of originality and familiarity. I'll be doing my best though and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Pir84lyf – Satan City… go figure… they play by their own rules.

Sharkdude5 – Thanks!

Fayoken – Sorry for the long wait last time. Hopefully I can keep that from happening for a while.

Anonymous – Puzzle pieces are slowly taking shape. Thanks!

Guest – So sorry! It was horrible having no Internet!

Ethan Demas – I'm actually hoping their roles will only get bigger instead of smaller. We'll see if that's possible to pull off. Thanks!

Heseltine – Icarus so should have come around sooner! I've got a great picture someone made of Icarus on my Tumblr that was the inspiration for his inclusion.

Unpredictable cupcake – Goku has been recognized! Is this good or bad? Maybe a little of both… Hopefully we'll find out soon.

AmericanWriterMan – Thank you so much!

Penelope – I ended up giving Dr. Oreo a bit more personality than I was originally intending. He just became a weirdo so I went with it and had a lot of fun. I'm glad you liked it!

Maximusrexmundi – It was fun putting the spotlight on the other characters. It sort of took that extra wide lens off of the Dragon Ball story for a bit.

Wheathermangohanssj4 – It may seem like filler, but so many major archs were hinted at in it. And stop giving away my story before I write it, LOL! Shhhh, we're getting there, ha!

Titanium Gold – Thanks a lot, that's really cool of you to say. I've really tried to conform to the themes of Dragonball without relying overly heavy on exactly how things are "supposed" to go. Hopefully things will stay interesting as we go.

LostD – Thanks! I know, I've seen plenty where Gohan just becomes so dark and sullen and mean. I mean he's still Goku's kid, not Vegeta's right? Hopefully we keeps a streak of curiosity and adventure in him.

Dyton – I think you're right. Maybe it was because it was a weekend and so he was kind of "off duty" Being that he wasn't fighting crime might make him less authoritative. Dinosaurs always bring a bit of excitement with them no matter what though, don't they? Thanks!

Shugokage – Thanks a lot!

UltimateGohan42 – Thanks! Hopefully I can keep it entertaining.

Mathemagician93 – WHOA! Review #100! Thank you so much. So in my last story, ZAT, I offered every hundredth reviewer a free Dragon Ball Z oneshot story. So I'm going to try and keep that tradition going. Mathemagician93, you are the receiver of the first oneshot for this story, and I'll be talking with you to get the details sorted as to what you'd like to see in it. Thanks a lot for the review, and all the detailed feedback you messaged me with!

Noip13 – Wow thank you so much! I really appreciate the kind words and will do my best to continue with this one and keep it entertaining.

And thanks to everyone who has made it this far, I'm glad to see people reading my work and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to hear more about suggestions and what you think so far.

And now, on to the chapter!

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: By Invitation Only<p>

* * *

><p>Everyone seems to be tired on Monday mornings. The world drags on for students and professionals alike. Even crime was down as criminals were probably smart enough to sleep for a while longer. With it being so early and nothing interesting being mentioned on the police scanner Gohan decided to divert his course the lookout.<p>

"Hey Gohan," Korin waved as Gohan flew up the tower.

"Good morning Master Korin!" Gohan shouted back as he continued his assent.

Gohan flew over the rim of the lookout and landed near the edge. Dende immediately ran over to him, "Gohan! It's good to see you!"

"You too Dende!" Gohan grinned as the miniature god of earth hugged him.

Piccolo emerged from the temple behind Dende and though less emotional, grinned upon seeing his favorite student, "I see you've been busy kid."

Gohan nodded, "A little, now that I'm in school my studies haven't been so hard to keep up with, but there's always some kind of trouble going on in that city. It's like if I turn my head for a moment everything starts going crazy."

Dende nodded, "Now imagine that with the whole planet!"

Gohan laughed, "Yeah, I shouldn't complain. I've been trying to take after you and prioritize what I deal with now so I'm not running after every little thing that doesn't need me."

Piccolo nodded, "It's important that the people not forget how to take care of themselves when they can."

"Definitely," Gohan rubbed the back of his head in thought, he had come for a reason and felt he better get it out of the way, "Mr. Piccolo, I need to ask you something…"

Piccolo nodded, "Sure kid."

"It's about the friends I've made in school," Gohan had to think about how he was going to word his question for a moment, "I feel like… if they're really my friends then I should be able to trust them. You know, with who and what I am?"

"Hmmm…" Piccolo looked Gohan over to get an idea on how serious the boy was before giving him an answer, "My one warning to you Gohan, you're a good and kind person, others may try to take advantage of you and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Thanks Piccolo," Gohan broke eye contact for a moment before the energy in his words picked back up, "There are these three kids at my school, one of them is the daughter of that guy, Mr. Satan. We've been spending a lot of time together and I really feel like I can trust them. But part of me is also really scared, what if they freak out once they know what I am? What if they get mad at me for not telling them sooner?" Gohan looked to the ground, "I just don't know if this is the kind of thing that would make people not want to be my friend anymore."

Everyone remained quiet for a moment to give Gohan a chance to lament. Piccolo then placed a hand on Gohan's shoulder, "Don't dwell so much on those details. Believe me, when Goku set out to wander the world he had no trouble making friends despite everything that makes him… unusual. There are however consequences you'll need to consider if you're going to open yourself up in this manner."

"Like what?" Gohan asked innocently as he looked back up to his mentor.

"You have more than just a few things about you that makes you special Gohan," Piccolo decided the best approach was to be blunt and lay everything down in front of the boy, "You've lived your life quietly and secluded for the most part. Should word of what you really are become public knowledge, chances are your quiet life would drastically change. That may not even be a bad thing, however you should know that there will be those out there who will see you as a hero, and others who may see you as a threat. I'm not saying that revealing who you are to your close friends will lead to a scenario where your secrets will be made public, but you have to hold true that the possibility exists, and should it happen is that a risk you're willing to take."

"I see what you mean…" Gohan looked down again.

Piccolo frowned for a moment, but then quickly a warm smile returned to him, "Keep in mind there are pros and cons to both sides, there is a lot you may regret by not telling them as well." Gohan's face had the same 'like what?' expression as he had a moment ago, so Piccolo continued to elaborate, "By not trusting your friends with who you are, you are denying both them and yourself an opportunity to see where your friendships may lead you. By not confiding certain truths in them, there is an entire destiny you may be denying yourself."

Gohan's eyes were wide as he nodded trying to comprehend Piccolo's words.

Dende recognized that Gohan was having difficulty realigning his thoughts and fears, "I have an idea Gohan!"

"What's that?" Gohan noticeably lit up hoping to get more insight from his friends.

"Your birthday is less than a week away," Dende brought up excitedly, "What if we have a party here for everyone we know, but then the next day you could throw a party at your house for all your new friends?"

"A separate party?" Gohan asked confused.

"Yeah," Dende explained further, "That way it'll give you a chance to show them just a little bit more about you. They'll get to see where you live and get to know you a little bit better and you can use that to determine how much more to open up to them."

"That sounds like a good idea!" Gohan cheered up immediately, "I guess I would have to make sure my mom is alright with that idea, but that sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks Dende!"

"Of course!" Dende beamed in the knowledge that Gohan liked his idea.

Piccolo enjoyed seeing both Gohan and Dende look so blissful. He hoped with all his being that things would go well and that this would last, "You should probably get going Gohan, you don't want to be late for your classes."

"You're right…" Gohan looked at his watch, "I want to go ask my mom about the party before I get to school now too. I'll stop by for lunch before the weekend, promise!"

"Anytime kid," Piccolo waved Gohan off as the boy jumped off the edge of the lookout.

Dende ran to the edge and called after his friend, "We'll see you soon Gohan!"

Gohan was barely visible as he dashed through the sky in his equivalent of sprinting. He arrived at his front door in just moments, "Hey mom!"

Chichi looked over from the kitchen, not used to seeing her son winded from excitement, "Is everything alright Gohan?"

Gohan nodded as he caught his breath, "I was just talking to Dende…"

"Shouldn't you be at school?" Chichi spoke in a voice that was almost chastising.

"I've still got fifteen minutes before first period begins, plenty of time!" Gohan breathed out, "But I was at the lookout, and Dende brought up that since my birthday is coming up that I maybe I should invite some friends from school over and have a small party. Would that be okay?"

Chichi almost laughed but settled on a wry grin, "That would be fine Gohan, I'd actually really like the chance to meet a few of the friends you've made from school."

"There are three I'd really like to invite," Gohan mentioned.

"We'll discuss the details later baby," Chichi noticed that Gohan cringed a little after she called him baby, but she acted like she didn't notice. "Go ahead and get yourself to school and invite whoever you'd like."

"Thanks mom, I love you!" Gohan ran out the door again and blasted back off into the sky.

Chichi smiled to herself and returned to the needs of her youngest son. She couldn't help but be pleased to see that kind of excitement in Gohan's eyes. How could she possibly tell him no?

Even at a slower pace that allowed Gohan to catch his breath, he managed to land on top of the school with more than ten minutes to spare.

It was now habit for Gohan to stop by the room his friends were using for their MASK meetings before getting to class. He definitely didn't have a problem keeping up with any course work he missed by spending time with his club. Videl and Sharp were definitely the ones who struggled the most if they missed too much time.

No one was in the room today, but Gohan decided to wait around for a few minutes just in case they were running late. He stood by the theory board which had been used to try and piece together the identity of The Dragon. It had become rather moot point lately as Videl had become convinced that whoever The Dragon was he had to be just one boy around twelve or thirteen years old who was incredibly strong, well trained, and had the support of powerful and rich backers. No new information had been discovered since the Timbers incident that would allow someone to fit the description. So the MASK meetings had admittedly become more of a social gathering. Videl had been spending more time demonstrating self-defense techniques on Sharp while Gohan and Erasa took notes, and in return Gohan and Erasa would help the other two with their homework.

Gohan looked over the board carefully, "Maybe it's time…"

It didn't seem like anyone was stopping by today, so Gohan headed off to class. There was only a few minutes before class started, but Sharp was the only one there and was looking bored, "Yo!"

Sharp perked up a bit seeing Gohan arrive, "Hey Gohan! You won't believe what kind of weekend I had!" It seemed as though Sharp had been dying to retell his story to someone.

"Oh yeah?" Gohan laughed, "I'm not surprised by much anymore, but go ahead and try! First off though, how come you're the only one here?"

Sharp looked around and shrugged, "I don't know, Erasa said she had some things she had to do this morning and we split after we got here, and I haven't seen Videl either. I guess they might be together but it's hard to know for sure."

Gohan frowned, "I was really hoping to talk to all of you, but that can wait."

"In that case," Sharp grinned and got excited again, "Over the weekend I helped The Dragon save the city from dinosaurs!" The bell rang and all the students stood to bow as the teacher entered the room. "Darn, I'll have to tell you later."

"Deal!" Gohan pulled out his pencil and got to work on the day's assignments.

The day went on and neither Videl nor Erasa ever made it in. Gohan and Sharp eventually headed out to P.E. class and Sharp continued to regal in the story of his weekend adventure to Gohan as they walked through the hall. Gohan listened intently and was genuinely impressed by Sharp's bravery.

"You really jumped on a pterodactyl and rode it into the sky?!" Gohan tried his best to sound surprised, "Wow, weren't you scared that you could fall off?"

Sharp shrugged, "Only a little bit, I probably could have gotten the pterodactyl fly us where I wanted, but The Dragon showed up and was able to get things under control a lot faster so I didn't mind the help."

"Cool," Gohan closed his eyes and grinned at the taller boy, "I'm sure The Dragon appreciated your help!"

"I guess he might have," Sharp smiled back as he went to his locker.

Gohan opened his locker and pulled out his gym clothes, "You'll have to tell me the rest later!"

Another boy approached Sharp excitedly, "Is it really true you helped The Dragon fight off a bunch of dinosaurs?"

Sharp returned the excitement and started telling the story yet again.

Like normal, Gohan took his clothes over to one of the bathroom stalls to change. The tale of Sharp's day had Gohan thinking about everything that had happened. There was still a few unanswered questions about that Doctor Oreo and Doctor Purrin and their mysterious android. He also wasn't sure what had been done to the pterodactyl eggs.

Gohan was lost in his thoughts as he pulled off his school clothes and hadn't noticed the locker room had become very quiet. Before Gohan could come up with a plan, a strong pull knocked the flimsy twist lock of the stall out from its slot. Gohan wasn't sure how to react as Romeo and Simon yanked him from its privacy while wearing only his boxer briefs.

"Shy boy! Shy boy! Shy…" Most of the boys in the P.E. class had gathered around the stall as Gohan was pushed into the center, but the chants quickly died down as everyone actually noticed Gohan.

"Oh shit…" new murmurs started coming from the crowd of boys, "Did you know he was…?" "I had no idea Gohan was…" "That's a lot of muscle…"

Gohan felt slightly embarrassed but didn't make a move as he tried to determine how best to deal with the situation.

After being distracted by his own story telling, Sharp finally noticed the crowd by the stall and pushed his way through the boys and saw for himself both the predicament Gohan was in, and what everyone was whispering about. Gohan was obviously getting uncomfortable so Sharp took a few steps closer, "Dude, you've never mentioned that you work out before!"

"I tried to a few times… It just never really came up before…" Gohan watched the floor really intently.

Sharp didn't want Gohan to lock up so he looked over at Romeo, "Get the tape."

"Huh?" Romeo asked being shaken from the shock of the moment.

Sharp turned back to Gohan, "It's been two years since I've seen anyone our age who might have and arm width that competes with mine. So bring the measuring tape, I want to see who's bigger."

"Right!" Romeo quickly ran to the locker and came back with a cloth tape.

Gohan looked a little confused but Sharp gave him a sort of confident look which calmed him down some. Sharp then took a couple of deep breaths and then flexed his arm a few times, "Simon, you be the judge."

Simon nodded and wrapped the tape around Sharp's bicep. Sharp squeezed his arm as tight as he could while Simon measured, "Fourteen point four inches!"

Sharp grinned confidently, "Pure muscle baby." Some of the boys cheered while others started slinking back mostly out of jealousy, "Come on Gohan, show'em what you got."

Gohan nodded. He focused on powering down as much as he could and hoped that would help keep his muscles from bulging some. It was difficult trying to relax while looking like he was psyching out in a manner similar to what Sharp had done.

Gohan flexed his arm as Simon wrapped the tape around it, "It's..." Simon's eyes widened as he adjusted the tape, "No wait, it's fourteen… point one!"

Sharp was definitely shocked but quickly patted Gohan on the back, "Man that's close! I'm still number one though!"

All of the boys cheered for Sharp and then hurried out to the field before the coach came looking for them. Gohan didn't bother returning to the stall as he finished changing.

Sharp sat on the bench next to Gohan once the others had left, "Seriously Gohan, you always wear clothes that have never hinted that you were that buff! And then you always change in the stall. I figured you were shy, but what gives? You should be flaunting what you got man!"

Gohan shrugged, "I guess I just sort of knew people would make a big deal out of it and was hoping to avoid it."

Sharp nodded, "Sorry it came out this way then."

With a sort of half smile Gohan retorted, "It's okay I guess. I mean it had to happen eventually, and I guess that's one less thing that I have to worry about."

"Only one huh? You saying you're a man of secrets or something?" Sharp teased.

"Maybe," Gohan grinned back as he slid his shirt on.

"We definitely need to get you at least a set of gym clothes that fits you better," Sharp pulled his shirt on as well, "Do that and you'll never have to worry about bullies again." Gohan gave Sharp a sideways glance so Sharp elaborated, "I may know a little from experience, but come on!"

Gohan took a deep breath and tried to cheer back up, "Thanks Sharp."

After the general exercises, all the students were on the track running the mile. Sharp and Gohan were finally getting back into the swing of their conversation like nothing had happened when they noticed Erasa standing by the bleachers waving at them. They stopped and running and saw Videl talking to the coach.

"I guess I don't have to worry about you guys getting out of shape, it's alright if you leave early," The coach made some notes on his clipboard.

"Thanks coach," Videl bowed and then waved her friends over, "We need to talk." Videl sounded serious as she turned and marched toward the school.

Gohan and Sharp looked at each other and shrugged. Sharp looked to his sister for answers, "Is everything alright?"

Erasa grinned while biting her lip and looked from Sharp to Gohan, "I should probably let Videl do the talking."

"Wow… I wonder what's up," Gohan gulped feeling like he was in the dark about something.

Videl led them all to their MASK room and quickly shut the door, "Gohan," Videl spun on her heal and locked eyes with Gohan. She wanted to be absolutely sure to get the truth from him, "I've got a few questions I need you to answer for me."

Sharp grinned, "Ohhh… I know what this is about, wow word travels fast doesn't it Gohan?"

Both Erasa and Videl gave Sharp funny looks, "What are you talking about?"

"You know?" Sharp shrugged, "The way everyone found out today that Gohan works out and is actually ripped?"

"No way!" Erasa's eyes widened as she looked Gohan up and down trying to get a hint if Sharp's words were fact through Gohan's clothes.

Videl didn't seem to be sure whether to believe it or not, "Gohan, shirt."

"Huh?" Gohan looked confused while Sharp actually blushed at Videl's blunt command.

"You're going to have to chance out of your P.E. clothes anyway," Videl reasoned, "So shirt, off." Videl pointed up to make sure her point was clear."

"Oh… okay I guess," Gohan reached for the bottom hem of his shirt and then pulled it up and over his head.

"Oh wow…" Both girls blushed as they stared at Gohan's physique for a moment.

Erasa knew she should stare but was having a hard time helping it, "You weren't kidding."

Sharp was feeling a little jealous of the attention, "You know, we measured up in the locker room I've still got more muscle than he does."

"Yeah but you're my brother," Erasa waved him off, "This is different."

Though she didn't want to outright say it, Videl was impressed, "Why didn't you ever tell us you worked out or trained before?"

"I tried to actually," Gohan sighed, "Back at the Timbers party I tried to mention that I could help you and Sharp but stuff kept interrupting me."

The abrasive edge had definitely worn off on Videl as her look softened, "Yeah, I think I kind of remember you were trying to say something that we didn't let you finish that night.

Gohan's eyes widened as he looked down and whispered, "Umm… actually…"

"But this makes sense with what I have to ask you today," Videl continued. All eyes turned to Videl as she stepped closer to Gohan, "Son Gohan, I didn't recognize the name before but I do now. Be honest with me, are you related to Son Goku, the man who held the title of world martial arts champion before my father?"

This time Sharp's mouth dropped as he turned to Gohan.

Gohan was almost shaking as he clenched his fist and stared at the floor. His hair left his eyes almost shadowed as he searched for his voice, "Y…Yes… He's my dad."

Everyone immediately noticed something was very wrong, "Gohan…?" Videl started again, "What happened? And why didn't your dad compete in the world martial arts tournament when it started up again last year?"

Gohan's teeth clenched and wiped his eye with the back of his hand, "It was almost two years ago… my dad… he… he…"

Gohan didn't have to finish for his friends to understand. Videl suddenly felt horrible for pushing the question on Gohan and quickly embraced him. Erasa ran forward and tackled them in her own hug as well while Sharp leaned in close and rubbed Gohan's back consolingly

Though Gohan had been doing well to keep his emotions in check, once he saw the sympathetic looks on his friends faces he couldn't hold it in any longer. It was then that Gohan realized he'd been doing everything he could to be strong for everyone else. He couldn't talk about how he felt with his mom because he knew she was hurting too. And his friends who all knew and loved his father, he didn't want to burden them with his emotional trouble. He had barely been aware that he had so much bottled up until it started to overflow, "he died… and… i… it's… my fault."

"Gohan no!" Erasa cried out as both she and Videl squeezed tighter, "Of course it's not your fault!"

"B…but…" Gohan still had his eyes buried in his arm, "I sh…should have s…saved him!"

Erasa pulled Gohan's arm away from his face so she could look into his eyes, "I'm sure your dad doesn't want you to think like that."

"I… know he doesn't… b…but… that doesn't make it less true…" Gohan sobbed quietly and slowly calmed down.

Videl rested her head on Gohan's shoulder. A few things were starting to make sense about her friend that she didn't understand before. Gohan had a bit of a reclusive streak that would take over him every now and then, especially when he noticed others around him enjoying quality family time. It must have been something he really missed.

"Gohan?" Videl whispered, "I'm sorry, I know I get harsh with people pretty easily. I don't mean to take out my frustration on you guys even though that happens more often than I want it too. You three mean so much to me, far more than just friends. If you need family to confide in Gohan, please don't keep it bottled up, come to us okay?"

A smile finally crossed Gohan's face again, "Thank you, that means a lot to me…"

"Of course man," Sharp patted Gohan's back, "We're definitely here for you, no matter what."

"You're one of the best guys I've ever met," Erasa beamed as she squeezed Gohan tighter, "Please come talk to me anytime you need to."

Gohan nodded as his friends finally let up off him to let him regain his composure from the emotional moment.

No one tried to rush Gohan as he let his breathing settle, "Hey you guys."

"What is it?" Erasa asked keeping her enthusiasm high.

"Well, I'm turning thirteen this week, and I'd like to invite you guys to my birthday party on Saturday, would you all be willing to come?" Gohan asked slightly nervous.

"I definitely want to go!" Erasa shouted immediately.

Videl psyched up quickly, "Of course I'll be there!"

"Yeah!" Sharp gleamed, "I won't miss it."

Gohan smiled again, "It's a bit of a commute; it's going to be at my house on Mt. Paozu."

"That is a bit of a ways," Erasa thought, "Do you really make that trip every day?"

Gohan nodded, "It's not bad once you get used to it."

"I'll get us there," Videl's voice gave the impression it wouldn't be a problem, "Just give me directions and I'll have one of my dad's drivers give us a ride on Saturday."

"Great!" Gohan hugged each of his friends again one at a time.

"So I guess this means you're the youngest of us huh?" Sharp teased Gohan as he stepped back.

Erasa shook her head, "Only by a few months."

"Still," Sharp kept up his playful banter, "I'm a little older, a little taller, I have muscles that are a little bigger, I think this means I'm winning right now."

Erasa shook her head, "I don't know about that last one, I bet if Gohan was a little taller his muscles would be bigger than yours."

"That's not how that works!" Sharp groaned and everyone laughed.

Videl picked Gohan's shirt up off one of the desks and handed it to him, "Are you gonna be okay? Anything you want to talk about now?"

"I'll be alright," Gohan said as he slid his shirt back on, "I know I have a lot I need to talk about, but it can wait just a little bit."

"Alright, whenever you're ready," Videl assured him.

Gohan nodded, "We've been here for a while, we should probably go home."

Everyone agreed it had been a long Monday and decided to head home. Erasa sat by Videl as they waited for Gohan and Sharp to change back into their street clothes, "So is he still on your list?"

"I don't know," Videl admitted. "For a while I thought the son of the old champion might have it in him to do all those incredible things, but Gohan is so gentle. I can't really see him hurting anything even if he has been trained in the martial arts."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Erasa had a bit of a silly grin on her face, "he really is one of those genuinely nice guys huh?"

Videl raised an eyebrow, "You like him a lot don't you?"

Erasa swayed her head from side to side and smiled, "I've always thought he was really cute, and today I got see that he's also… wow…"

Videl snorted a laugh, "Yeah, whatever."

Erasa poked Videl, "Don't try to hide that you like him too."

"What are you?" Videl started to ask but Erasa's grin silenced her.

"I saw the way you were holding on to him, a little tighter than just a friend perhaps?" Erasa's grin unnerved Videl a little bit, but she wasn't sure what Erasa's angle was especially after admitting that she liked him.

"Alright, we're all set!" Sharp interrupted their moment as he and Gohan emerged from the locker room.

"Let's get out of here then," Erasa half way stretched as she led the way out of the building.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow then, take care!" Gohan waved as he left in the opposite direction where Mt. Paozu could be seen in the background.

Videl watched him go. Her mind was still a bit of a jumble of thoughts, "Son Gohan, just what is up with you?"

* * *

><p>End Chapter<p>

I can't believe it took me eight chapter of a Gohan story to have Piccolo make an appearance. That's just shameful. So this chapter was a little shorter than others, but I hope the bits of drama were still entertaining. This also brings me to the end of what was prepared for NaNoWriMo. I don't plan on putting this story down since I'm this invested in it now, but keeping up with weekly updates is no easy task. I'll do my best to not disappoint but please don't be too mad if I skip another week every now and then. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear what you think!


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